title: Assessing cognitive capacity for participation in a research study.
abstract: To give informed consent in research, persons must be mentally capable of understanding the study, risks, and benefits. An objective screening tool may assess cognitive capacity better than brief conversations or clinician input. The purpose is to explore the validity of the Mental Alternations Test (MAT) to assess the cognitive capacity of older (ages 50 years +) HIV+ persons (N = 81). Descriptive correlational quantitative method was used. About 12% of the sample was cognitively impaired. Contrary to expectations, primary language was the only variable with a significant relationship with the MAT (r = -.22, p = .02); there were no significant relationships between the MAT and age, education, alcohol, smoking, injection drug use, street or mind-altering drug use, physical functional status, depressive symptoms, comorbidities, or being diagnosed with AIDS. Our findings suggest caution in using the MAT as an instrument for assessing cognitive impairment in a linguistically diverse population.
authors.affiliation: Hunter College, City University of New York, USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Nokes
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Nwakeze
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology; D032882:Comprehension; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods* / Q000451:nursing / Q000592:standards; D016743:Mental Competency; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009519:New York City; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D018579:Patient Selection; D011446:Prospective Studies; D035842:Research Subjects; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014145:Trail Making Test / Q000592:standards