MONDAY, Sept. 16, 2019 (HealthDay News) — The Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) tablet application (iCAMS) seems to be a reliable and fast method of assessment, according to a study recently published in the International Journal of MS Care.
Meghan Beier, Ph.D., from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues enrolled 100 participants with physician-confirmed multiple sclerosis to examine equivalency between the original paper-based and tablet-based assessments. In each session, inter-rater reliability, parallel forms reliability, and concurrent validity were assessed by incorporating two test administrators: one scoring responses with the paper assessments and the other with iCAMS.
The researchers identified strong and significant correlations for all tests. There was excellent agreement between iCAMS and paper versions of the BICAMS tests; all intraclass correlations exceeded 0.93. There was no statistically significant difference in the scores from all cognitive tests, indicating no proportional bias. Administration of the iCAMS app saved about 10 minutes over the paper version, including scoring.
“Our findings suggest that the novel iCAMS is comparable to the paper-based BICAMS, with no significant differences in results between the paper and tablet-based measures,” the authors write. “iCAMS is a promising tool that will facilitate the use of an established and recommended cognitive battery for multiple sclerosis in clinical settings.”
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