Telephone administration of the Mental Alternation Test: sensitivity to cognitive decline and practice effects across midlife and late life.
BACKGROUND
We evaluated the utility of the telephone-administered Mental Alternation Test (MAT, an oral variant of the Trail-Making Test) for remote assessment of cognitive functioning in older adults. We examined (1) the sensitivity of MAT scores to cognitive change across 4 age groups, (2) practice effects associated with repeat administration, and (3) the uniformity of practice effects across age groups.


METHODS
Community-dwelling volunteers were recruited randomly and categorized as young-middle-aged (45-54 years; n = 51), middle-aged (55-64 years; n = 58), young-old (65-74 years; n = 43) or old-old (75-85 years; n = 43). The participants completed the MAT twice within 2 weeks. The data were analyzed using mixed ANOVA.


RESULTS
We found an effect of age on MAT performance [F(3, 191) = 11.37; p < 0.001], with planned comparisons revealing significantly lower scores in the old-old (p < 0.05). The scores on the second MAT administration were significantly higher than on the first administration [F(1, 191) = 12.82; p < 0.001], but this practice effect did not differ across age groups.


CONCLUSIONS
The MAT was sensitive to cognitive decline in older adulthood. Practice effects were measurable but uniform across the observed age cohorts. As a brief telephone-administered test, the MAT represents a promising measure of cognitive functioning in older adults that is feasible for use in large-scale epidemiological studies.
McComb
Erin
E
Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Brewster
Paul
P
Chou
Pak Hei Benedito
PH
Crossley
Margaret
M
Simard
Martine
M
Tuokko
Holly
H
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity