ABSTRACT

Older adults are the largest population seeking neuropsychological assessment services. Anxiety has been shown to impact test scores, yet no anxiety measure currently exists specific to older adult neuropsychological assessment. This study piloted and validated the Feelings About Neuropsychological Testing measure (FANT), a measure of neuropsychological assessment anxiety developed to measure the cognitive, affective, and physiological aspects of test and state anxiety. The measure was validated on 105 community based older adults aged 55 and older. All participants were administered the FANT, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder- seven item (GAD-7), Test Anxiety Inventory- Short Form (TAI-SF), Patient Health Questionnaire- nine item (PHQ-9), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Dementia Worry Scale (DWS), and PROMIS Cognitive Function Short Form- 6a (CFSF). The measure proved feasible to administer, both the State and Test-specific dimensions demonstrated good internal consistency (state: α =.832; test: α =.894), discriminant validity, and external validity (compared to GAD-7, TAI-SF, PHQ-9, DWS, and CFSF). FANT scores may reveal patients for whom anxiety disrupts attention and attentional control, and therefore has promise as a measure that may inform assessment findings and guide possible intervention to maximize performance during testing sessions and to inform data interpretation.

摘要

老年人是寻求神经心理评估服务的最大人群。焦虑已被证明会影响考试成绩，但目前尚无针对老年人神经心理学评估的焦虑衡量标准。这项研究试行并验证了神经心理测试的感觉测量 (FANT)，这是一种神经心理学评估焦虑的测量，用于测量测试和状态焦虑的认知、情感和生理方面。该措施在 105 名 55 岁及以上的社区老年人中得到验证。所有参与者都接受了 FANT、广泛性焦虑症 - 七项 (GAD-7)、测试焦虑量表 - 简表 (TAI-SF)、患者健康问卷 - 九项 (PHQ-9)、匹兹堡睡眠质量指数 (PSQI) ), 痴呆症担忧量表 (DWS), 和 PROMIS 认知功能简写 - 6a (CFSF)。该措施被证明是可行的，状态和测试特定的维度都表现出良好的内部一致性（状态：α =.832；测试：α =.894）、区分效度和外部效度（与 GAD-7 相比，TAI- SF、PHQ-9、DWS 和 CFSF）。FANT 分数可能会揭示焦虑会干扰注意力和注意力控制的患者，因此有望作为一种衡量标准，可以为评估结果提供信息，并指导可能的干预措施，以最大限度地提高测试过程中的表现并为数据解释提供信息。