title: Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) and performance of everyday life tasks: Actual Reality.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently, a brief cognitive assessment (Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis: BICAMS) has been recommended for use with patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) to screen for cognitive impairments. However, the relationship between the BICAMS and everyday life activity has not been examined. The aim of this study was to examine whether the BICAMS can predict performance of activities of daily living using Actual Reality(TM) (AR) in persons with MS.
  
  
  METHODS
  A between-subjects design was utilized to compare 41 individuals with MS and 32 healthy controls (HC) performing BICAMS and an AR task. Participants were asked to access the internet to purchase a flight ticket or cookies, and were administered the BICAMS and questionnaires to assess quality of life (QOL), affect symptomatology, and prior internet experience.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants with MS performed significantly worse than HC on the BICAMS and the AR. Additionally, better BICAMS performance was associated with more independent AR performance. Self-reports of QOL were not correlated with AR or BICAMS performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Individuals with MS have greater problems with actual everyday life tasks as compared to HC. The BICAMS is a promising cognitive screening tool to predict actual functional performance in participants with MS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, USA yg243@nyu.edu.
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Goverover
authors.affiliation: Kessler Foundation, West Orange, NJ, USA Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chiaravalloti
authors.affiliation: Kessler Foundation, West Orange, NJ USA; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: DeLuca
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D010054:Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D003132:Commerce; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cognition; activities of daily living; multiple sclerosis; outcome measurement; quality of life