The development and validation of a digital biomarker for remote assessment of Alzheimer's Diseases Risk.

Background Digital cognitive assessment is becoming increasingly widespread in ageing research and care, especially since the COVID19 pandemic. Remote online collection provides opportunities for ageing and dementia professionals to collect larger datasets, increase the diversity of research participants and patients and offer cost-effective screening and monitoring methods for clinical practice and trials. However, the reliability of self-administered at-home tests compared to their lab-based counterparts often goes unexamined, compromising the validity of adopting such measures. Objective Our aim is to validate a self-administered web-based version of the visual short-term memory binding task (VSTMBT), a potential digital biomarker sensitive to Alzheimer’s Disease processes, suitable for use on personal devices. Methods A final cross-sectional sample of 37 older-adult (51 – 77 years) participants without dementia completed our novel self-administered version of the VSTMBT, both at home on a personal device and in the lab, under researcher-controlled conditions. Results ANOVA and Bayesian T-test found no significant differences between the task when it was remotely self-administered by participants at home compared to when it was taken under controlled lab conditions. Conclusions These results indicate the VSTMBT can provide reliable data when self-administered at-home using an online version of the task and on a personal device. This finding has important implications for remote screening and monitoring practices of older adults, as well as supporting clinical practices serving diverse patient communities. Future work will assess remote administration in older adults with cognitive impairment and diverse socio-economic and ethno-cultural backgrounds as well as a bench-to-bedside application

A digital biomarker for remote self-assessment of Alzheimer’s Diseases: development and validatio

Background: Online data-collection provide an opportunity for Alzheimer's Disease research to collect large datasets crucial for understanding important public health concerns. However, the reliability of online tasks as compared to those administered in the lab is poorly examined. Our goal is to validate an online version of the short-term memory-binding task (STMBT), a potential digital biomarker sensitive to Alzheimer’s Disease (Parra et al., 2010), to understand if data collected online in two environments, at-home and in the lab, is comparable. Method: We created an online version of the STMBT task using Psytoolkit (Stoet 2010; Stoet 2017). Development involved piloting, group and user discussions to explore how such a novel tool could be best presented for self-assessment. Useful insights led to refinement of the online tool (i.e., instruction videos, images, and text). The validation stage involves test-retest reliability assessment of cognitively fit participants (aged >40 years) who complete the two conditions of this paradigm (i.e., shape only and binding). Task Environment (home and in the lab) and conditions (shape and binding) were fully counterbalanced. Measures of general cognitive abilities, anxiety and at-home environment were also taken. Result: Recruitment is on-going, but preliminary data (n=10) has already proved informative. A repeated measures ANOVA looking at task-accuracy with factors of Environment (home vs. lab) and Condition (shape vs. binding) revealed no significant effects of Environment: F(1, 9) = 0.308, p = .591; Condition: F(1, 9) = 2.202, p = .172); or Interaction: F(1, 9) = 0.308, p = .591). For the shape condition, all participants performed near ceiling regardless of testing environment. In the binding condition, we observed good-to-excellent test-retest reliability between environments using single measures interclass correlation (ICC = 0.954, CI 0.83-0.99, (F(9, 9) = 39.62, p <.001). Conclusion: These preliminary results indicate the STMBT can provide reliable data when self-administered using an online version of the task which has important implications for public health researchers. For our fully powered sample, we will provide summary of other measures

The development and validation of a digital biomarker for remote assessment of Alzheimer's diseases risk

Background: Digital cognitive assessment is becoming increasingly widespread in ageing research and care, especially since the COVID19 pandemic. Remote online collection provides opportunities for ageing and dementia professionals to collect larger datasets, increase the diversity of research participants and patients and offer cost-effective screening and monitoring methods for clinical practice and trials. However, the reliability of self-administered at-home tests compared to their lab-based counterparts often goes unexamined, compromising the validity of adopting such measures. Objective: Our aim is to validate a self-administered web-based version of the visual short-term memory binding task (VSTMBT), a potential digital biomarker sensitive to Alzheimer’s Disease processes, suitable for use on personal devices. Methods: A final cross-sectional sample of 37 older-adult (51 – 77 years) participants without dementia completed our novel self-administered version of the VSTMBT, both at home on a personal device and in the lab, under researcher-controlled conditions. Results: ANOVA and Bayesian T-test found no significant differences between the task when it was remotely self-administered by participants at home compared to when it was taken under controlled lab conditions. Conclusions: These results indicate the VSTMBT can provide reliable data when self administered at-home using an online version of the task and on a personal device. This finding has important implications for remote screening and monitoring practices of older adults, as well as supporting clinical practices serving diverse patient communities. Future work will assess remote administration in older adults with cognitive impairment and diverse socio-economic and ethno-cultural backgrounds as well as a bench-to-bedside application

A digital biomarker for remote self-assessment of Alzheimer's diseases : development and validation

Online data-collection provide an opportunity for Alzheimer's Disease research to collect large datasets crucial for understanding important public health concerns. However, the reliability of online tasks as compared to those administered in the lab is poorly examined. Our goal is to validate an online version of the short-term memory-binding task (STMBT), a potential digital biomarker sensitive to Alzheimer's Disease (Parra et al., 2010), to understand if data collected online in two environments, at-home and in the lab, is comparable. We created an online version of the STMBT task using Psytoolkit (Stoet 2010; Stoet 2017). Development involved piloting, group and user discussions to explore how such a novel tool could be best presented for self-assessment. Useful insights led to refinement of the online tool (i.e., instruction videos, images, and text). The validation stage involves test-retest reliability assessment of cognitively fit participants (aged >40 years) who complete the two conditions of this paradigm (i.e., shape only and binding). Task Environment (home and in the lab) and conditions (shape and binding) were fully counterbalanced. Measures of general cognitive abilities, anxiety and at-home environment were also taken. Recruitment is on-going, but preliminary data (n=10) has already proved informative. A repeated measures ANOVA looking at task-accuracy with factors of Environment (home vs. lab) and Condition (shape vs. binding) revealed no significant effects of Environment: F(1, 9) = 0.308, p = .591; Condition: F(1, 9) = 2.202, p = .172); or Interaction: F(1, 9) = 0.308, p = .591). For the shape condition, all participants performed near ceiling regardless of testing environment. In the binding condition, we observed good-to-excellent test-retest reliability between environments using single measures interclass correlation (ICC = 0.954, CI 0.83-0.99, (F(9, 9) = 39.62,

sj-docx-1-dhj-10.1177_20552076241228416 - Supplemental material for The development and validation of a digital biomarker for remote assessment of Alzheimer's diseases risk

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-dhj-10.1177_20552076241228416 for The development and validation of a digital biomarker for remote assessment of Alzheimer's diseases risk by Joe Butler, Tamlyn J Watermeyer, Ellie Matterson and Emily G Harper, Mario Parra-Rodriguez in DIGITAL HEALTH</p