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. 2024 Nov 4;24(1):427.
doi: 10.1186/s12883-024-03920-9.

Reliable change indices for the Italian version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in non-demented Parkinson's disease patients

Edoardo Nicolò Aiello  1 , Federica Solca  1 , Silvia Torre  1 , Beatrice Curti  1 , Giulia De Luca  1 , Ruggero Bonetti  2 , Francesco Scheveger  2 , Eleonora Colombo  1 , Alessio Maranzano  1 , Marco Olivero  2 , Claudia Morelli  1 , Alberto Doretti  1 , Luca Maderna  1 , Federico Verde  1   3 , Roberta Ferrucci  4   5 , Sergio Barbieri  5 , Fabiana Ruggiero  5 , Denise Mellace  4 , Angelica Marfoli  4 , Angelica De Sandi  5 , Alberto Priori  6   7 , Gabriella Pravettoni  4   8 , Vincenzo Silani  1   3 , Nicola Ticozzi  1   3 , Andrea Ciammola #  1 , Barbara Poletti #  9   10
Affiliations

Reliable change indices for the Italian version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in non-demented Parkinson's disease patients

Edoardo Nicolò Aiello et al. BMC Neurol. .

Abstract

Background: . The present study aimed at deriving regression-based reliable change indices (RCIs) for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in an Italian cohort of non-demented Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.

Methods: N = 33 consecutive, non-demented PD patients were followed-up at a 5-to-8-month interval (M = 6.6; SD = 0.6) with the MoCA. Practice effects and test-retest reliability were assessed via dependent-sample t-tests and intra-class correlation (ICC) coefficients, respectively. RCIs were derived separately for raw and demographically adjusted MoCA scores according to a standardized regression-based approach by accounting for both baseline confounders (i.e., demographics, disease duration and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale scores) and retest interval.

Results: No practice effects were found (t(32) = 0.29; p = .778), with acceptable test-retest reliability being detected (ICC = 0.67). MoCA scores at T0 proved to be the only significant predictor of T1 MoCA performances within both the model addressing raw scores and that addressing adjusted scores (ps < 0.001).

Conclusions: The present study provides Italian practitioners and researchers with regression-based RCIs for the MoCA in non-demented PD patients, which can be reliably adopted for retest interval ≥ 5 and ≤ 8 months without encountering any practice effect.

Keywords: Cognitive screening; Montreal Cognitive Assessment; Neuropsychology; Parkinson’s disease; Psychometrics; Reliable change index.

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Conflict of interest statement

V. S. received compensation for consulting services and/or speaking activities from AveXis, Cytokinetics, Italfarmaco, Liquidweb S.r.l., and Novartis Pharma AG, receives or has received research supports from the Italian Ministry of Health, AriSLA, and E-Rare Joint Transnational Call. He is in the Editorial Board of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Degeneration, European Neurology, American Journal of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Frontiers in Neurology. B.P. received compensation for consulting services and/or speaking activities from Liquidweb S.r.l. She is Associate Editor for Frontier in Neuroscience. N. T. received compensation for consulting services from Amylyx Pharmaceuticals and Zambon Biotech SA. He is Associate Editor for Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. E.N.A. serves as an Editorial Board Member for BMC Neurology. F.V. is Associated Editor for Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

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