title: Validity and reliability of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the BACS (Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the validity and reliability of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia by examining its temporal stability, internal consistency, and discriminant and convergent validity.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was administered to 116 stable patients with schizophrenia and 58 matched control subjects. To assess concurrent validity, a subset of patients underwent a traditional neuropsychological assessment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patients with schizophrenia performed significantly worse than the controls (p<0.001) on all subtests of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia and on the total score, which attests to the discriminant validity of the test. The global score of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was significantly correlated with all of the subtests and with the global score for the standard battery. The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia also had good test-retest reliability (rho>0.8). The internal consistency of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was high (Cronbach's α  ϝ 0.874).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Brazilian Portuguese version of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia exhibits good reliability and discriminant and concurrent validity and is a promising tool for easily assessing cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and for comparing the performance of Brazilian patients with that of patients from other countries.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Post-Graduation Program, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte/MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Geovany Eliberto
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.affiliation: Hospital Foundation of the State of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte/MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Camilo Brandão de
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Resende
authors.affiliation: Hospital Foundation of the State of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte/MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ana Cecília Alves
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.affiliation: Clinical Medicine, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte/MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Antonio Lúcio
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Teixeira
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, United States.
authors.forename: Richard S E
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Keefe
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Post-Graduation Program, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte/MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: João Vinícius
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Salgado
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000592:standards; D011897:Random Allocation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014177:Translations