scholarly journals Longitudinal Measurement Properties of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 12-13
Author(s):  
Hao Luo ◽  
Björn Andersson ◽  
Gloria H Y Wong ◽  
Terry Y S Lum
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Cognitive Assessment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Montreal Cognitive Assessment ◽  
Item Parameter ◽  
Measurement Properties ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Longitudinal Measurement ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Background The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) has started to be widely used in longitudinal investigations to measure changes in cognition. However, the longitudinal measurement properties of MoCA have not been investigated. We aimed to examine the measurement invariance of individual MoCA items across four time points. Methods We used longitudinal data collected between 2014 and 2017 from a cohort study on health and well-being of older adults in Hong Kong. The Cantonese version of the MoCA was used. We applied multiple group confirmatory factor analysis of ordinal variables to examine measurement invariance by educational level and across time points. Invariant items were identified by sequential model comparisons. Results We included 1029 participants that answered MoCA items across all time points. We found that items Cube, Clock Hand and Clock Number had significantly different item parameters between participants with and without formal education at all time points. The selected model (RMSEA=0.031; SRMR=0.064) indicated that eight items (Trail, Cube, Clock Shape, Clock Number, Clock Hand, Abstraction, Short-term Memory, and Orientation) did not exhibit measurement invariance over time. However, the differences in item parameter estimate over time were marginal. Accounting for the lack of measurement invariance did not substantially affect classification properties based on cutoff values at the 2nd ( major neurocognitive disorder) and 7th (mild cognitive impairment) percentile. Conclusion Our findings support using MoCA to assess changes in cognition over time in the study population. Future research should examine the longitudinal measurement properties of the test in other populations with different characteristics.

Trajectory of Performance Status and Symptom Scores for Patients With Cancer During the Last Six Months of Life

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1151-1158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsien Seow ◽  
Lisa Barbera ◽  
Rinku Sutradhar ◽  
Doris Howell ◽  
Deborah Dudgeon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Status ◽  
Symptom Assessment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Patients With Cancer ◽  
Average Pain ◽  
Observational Cohort ◽  
Over Time

Purpose Ontario's cancer system is unique because it has implemented two standardized assessment tools population-wide to improve care: the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) measures severity of nine symptoms (scale 0 to 10; 10 indicates the worst) and the Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) measures performance status (scale 0 to 100; 0 indicates death). This article describes the trajectory of ESAS and PPS scores 6 months before death. Patients and Methods Observational cohort study of cancer decedents between 2007 and 2009. Decedents required ≥1 ESAS or PPS assessment in the 6 months before death for inclusion. Outcomes were the decedents' average ESAS and PPS scores per week before death. Results Ten thousand seven hundred fifty-two (ESAS) and 7,882 (PPS) decedents were included. The mean age was 65 years, half were female, and approximately 75% of assessments occurred in cancer clinics. Average PPS score declined slowly over the 6 months before death, starting at approximately 70 and ending at 40, declining more rapidly in the last month. For ESAS symptoms, average pain, nausea, anxiety, and depression scores remained relatively stable over the 6 months. Conversely, shortness of breath, drowsiness, well-being, lack of appetite, and tiredness increased in severity over time, particularly in the month before death. More than one third of the cohort reported moderate to severe scores (ie, 4 to 10) for most symptoms in the last month of life. Conclusion In this large outpatient cancer population, trajectories of mean ESAS scores followed two patterns: increasing versus generally flat. The latter was perhaps due to available treatment (eg, prescriptions) for those symptoms. Future research should prioritize addressing symptoms that worsen over time.

scholarly journals Longitudinal Relationships Between Subjective Cognitive Decline and Objective Memory: Depressive Symptoms Mediate Between-Person Associations

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Nikki L. Hill ◽  
Sakshi Bhargava ◽  
Emily Bratlee-Whitaker ◽  
Jennifer R. Turner ◽  
Monique J. Brown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Subjective Cognitive Decline ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Over Time

Background: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) may be an early indicator of cognitive impairment, but depressive symptoms can confound this relationship. Associations may be influenced by differences between individuals (i.e., between-persons) or how each individual changes in their experiences over time (i.e., within-persons). Objective: We examined depressive symptoms as a mediator of the between- and within-person associations of SCD and objective memory in older adults. Methods: Coordinated analyses were conducted across four datasets drawn from large longitudinal studies. Samples (range: n = 1,889 to n = 15,841) included participants 65 years of age or older with no dementia at baseline. We used multilevel structural equation modeling to examine the mediation of SCD and objective memory through depressive symptoms, as well as direct relationships among SCD, objective memory, and depressive symptoms. Results: Older adults who were more likely to report SCD had lower objective memory on average (between-person associations), and depressive symptoms partially mediated this relationship in three of four datasets. However, changes in depressive symptoms did not mediate the relationship between reports of SCD and declines in objective memory in three of four datasets (within-person associations). Conclusion: Individual differences in depressive symptoms, and not changes in an individual’s depressive symptoms over time, partially explain the link between SCD and objective memory. Older adults with SCD and depressive symptoms may be at greater risk for poor cognitive outcomes. Future research should explore how perceived changes in memory affect other aspects of psychological well-being, and how these relationships influence cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease risk.

Caregiving in quarantine: Humor styles, reframing, and psychological well-being among parents of children with disabilities

2021 ◽  
pp. 026540752110435
Author(s):  
Heidi L. Fritz
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Family Satisfaction ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Humor Styles ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Over Time

Prior research links adaptive humor styles (affiliative and self-enhancing) with enhanced psychological well-being and maladaptive humor styles (aggressive and self-defeating) with worse psychological well-being, primarily through humor styles’ influence on individuals’ social interactions and efforts to positively reframe stressors. The present study examined the unique relation of each humor style with psychological well-being with a focus on understanding mechanisms of adjustment under highly stressful conditions. Ninety-nine parents of children with disabilities were surveyed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in March 2020, and 79 parents completed follow-up surveys in July 2020. As predicted, at T1, self-enhancing humor was associated with less psychological distress and greater family satisfaction, self-defeating humor was associated with greater distress, and aggressive humor was associated with lower family satisfaction. Moreover, affiliative humor predicted decreased psychological distress over time, whereas self-defeating humor predicted increased psychological distress and decreased family satisfaction over time. Relations were largely mediated by caregiver positive reappraisal, family efforts to reframe daily disability-related challenges, and negative social interactions. Future research should further examine the influence of caregiver humor styles on family dynamics, family reframing norms, and caregiving efficacy.

scholarly journals Practical Significance of Longitudinal Measurement Invariance Violations in the Dutch–Flemish PROMIS Item Banks for Depression and Anxiety: An Illustration With Ordered-Categorical Data

Assessment ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 277-294
Author(s):  
Gerard Flens ◽  
Niels Smits ◽  
Caroline B. Terwee ◽  
Liv Pijck ◽  
Philip Spinhoven ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Specific Response ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Longitudinal Measurement Invariance ◽  
Longitudinal Measurement ◽  
Item Banks ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

We investigated longitudinal measurement invariance in the Dutch–Flemish PROMIS adult v1.0 item banks for Depression and Anxiety using two clinical samples with mood and anxiety disorders ( n = 640 and n = 528, respectively). Factor analysis was used to evaluate whether the item banks were sufficiently unidimensional at two test-occasions and whether the measured constructs remained the same over time. The results indicated that the item banks were sufficiently unidimensional, but the thresholds and residual variances of the constructs changed over time. However, using tentative rules of thumb, these invariance violations did not substantially affect the endorsement of a specific response category of a specific item at a specific test-occasion. Furthermore, the impact on the mean latent change scores of the item banks remained below the proposed cutoff value for substantial bias. These findings suggest that the invariance violations lacked practical significance for test-users, meaning that the item banks provide sufficiently invariant latent factor scores for use in clinical practice.

scholarly journals Longitudinal Validation of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy (LSRP) Scale in a High-Risk Dutch Community Sample

Assessment ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 107319112097513
Author(s):  
Sophie A. Wissenburg ◽  
Carlo Garofalo ◽  
Arjan A. J. Blokland ◽  
H. Palmen ◽  
Martin Sellbom
Keyword(s):  
Construct Validity ◽  
Factor Structure ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Psychopathic Traits ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Longitudinal Measurement Invariance ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Longitudinal Measurement ◽  
Three Factor ◽  
Over Time

The Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy (LSRP) scale is a self-report measure that can be used to assess psychopathic traits in community samples, and recent research suggested that its three-factor model (Egocentricity, Callousness, and Antisocial) has promising psychometric properties. However, no study to date has validated the LSRP in a longitudinal framework. The present study sought to validate the LSRP scale in a longitudinal design using a sample of Dutch emerging adults ( ns = 970 and 693 at time points 1 and 2, respectively). We assessed longitudinal measurement invariance and the stability of psychopathic traits over an 18-month time period, from age 20 to age 21.6. Furthermore, we replicated and extended findings on the factor structure, reliability, and construct validity of the Dutch LSRP scale. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the three-factor model fit the data well. Evidence of partial longitudinal measurement invariance was observed, which means that the Dutch translation of the LSRP scale is measuring an equivalent construct (and overall latent factor structure) over time. Psychopathic traits were relatively stable over time. The three LSRP subscales showed largely acceptable levels of internal consistency at both time points and showed conceptually expected patterns of construct validity and predictive validity, with a few notable exceptions.

Exploring the measurement properties of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in a population of people with cancer

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 2779-2787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni G. Arcuri ◽  
Lisa Palladini ◽  
Gabrielle Dumas ◽  
Josée Lemoignan ◽  
Bruno Gagnon
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Assessment ◽  
Montreal Cognitive Assessment ◽  
Measurement Properties

scholarly journals When the meditating mind wanders

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Delorme ◽  
Tracy Brandmeyer
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Emotional Arousal ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Meditation Practice ◽  
Over Time

The capacity for thought and the ability to assemble and manipulate concepts are cognitive features unique to humans. Spontaneous thoughts often occur when we are engaged in attention demanding tasks, with an increased frequency predicting negative affect. Meditation does not require thinking, however thinking occurs naturally during meditation. We develop the hypothesis that chronic thinking associated with strong emotional arousal during meditation practice might be detrimental to meditation practice and well being. One goal of meditation is to identify the arousal of emotions and thoughts, and remain equanimous with them. Over time, meditation may help dampen the attention grabbing power of these thoughts both during practice and in daily life, which may consequently help deepen meditation practice. However, when meditators fail to remain equanimous, the effects of these thoughts may be deleterious. We discuss how this hypothesis may help guide future research on meditation.

scholarly journals Affection deprivation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A panel study

2021 ◽  
pp. 026540752110465
Author(s):  
Colin Hesse ◽  
Alan Mikkelson ◽  
Xi Tian
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Exchange Theory ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Relational Communication ◽  
Time Points ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Over Time

This study examined the longer-term effects of the COVID-19 lockdowns on relational communication and mental health. Specifically, the study used the theoretic premises of Affection Exchange Theory (AET: Floyd, 2006 ) to hypothesize connections between affection deprivation and several indices of mental health, including loneliness and depression. The study used a panel design to recruit participants at different time points during the COVID-19 lockdowns. We employed growth modeling to examine how affection deprivation influenced mental health outcomes over time. As predicted, affection deprivation was associated with stress, loneliness, and depression. Contrary to our hypotheses, affection deprivation was not associated with life satisfaction and happiness. In addition, the results showed that sex moderated the relationship between affection deprivation and depression. These findings are discussed in detail, including both theoretical and practical implications as well as directions for future research.

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