Baker E L, Letz R E, Fidler A T, Shalat S, Plantamura D, Lyndon M
Neurobehav Toxicol Teratol. 1985 Jul-Aug;7(4):369-77.
To facilitate the evaluation of populations at risk for nervous system dysfunction due to environmental agents, we have developed a computer-administered neurobehavioral evaluation system (NES). The system includes a set of testing programs, designed to run on a microcomputer, and questionnaires which are used to record symptoms, obtain exposure history, and characterize potential confounding variables. Standard tasks evaluating memory, visual/motor function, vocabulary ability, and mood were selected and adapted for computer presentation following the recommendation of a World Health Organization (WHO)-National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) expert committee. After the performance of several pilot studies designed to refine our methodology, validation studies were initiated to assess comparability of selected computer tasks to existing standard ones administered and scored by an interviewer. A different aspect of validity, score stability, was addressed by repeated administration of tests to a small unexposed group. Comparability to existing tests was good (r = .42 to .76). Score stability was excellent over a 150 day interval, particularly for the digit span and continuous performance tests. From our experience, this approach appears to be a feasible, efficient, acceptable, and sensitive approach to evaluating central nervous system function in populations.
为便于评估因环境因素而有神经系统功能障碍风险的人群，我们开发了一种计算机辅助神经行为评估系统（NES）。该系统包括一组设计用于在微型计算机上运行的测试程序，以及用于记录症状、获取接触史和描述潜在混杂变量的问卷。根据世界卫生组织（WHO）-国家职业安全与健康研究所（NIOSH）专家委员会的建议，选择并调整了评估记忆、视觉/运动功能、词汇能力和情绪的标准任务，以便在计算机上呈现。在进行了几项旨在完善我们方法的试点研究之后，启动了验证研究，以评估所选计算机任务与由访谈者实施和评分的现有标准任务的可比性。通过对一小群未接触者重复进行测试，解决了效度的另一个方面，即分数稳定性。与现有测试的可比性良好（r = 0.42至0.76）。在150天的间隔内，分数稳定性极佳，尤其是数字广度测试和连续操作测试。根据我们的经验，这种方法似乎是评估人群中枢神经系统功能的一种可行、高效、可接受且敏感的方法。
