Data_Sheet_3_Validation study of the apathy motivation index in French adults.PDF

ObjectiveApathy is present in many brain disorders, but it is also prevalent to varying degrees in healthy people. While many tools have been developed to assess levels of apathy in pathology, no standardized measure of apathy in healthy people exists.MethodTherefore, this study aimed to validate the French version of the Apathy Motivation Index (f-AMI). The results of 729 participants were analyzed using an exploratory factorial analysis.ResultsPreliminary analyses suggested that the three domains of apathy extracted in the original AMI scale—behavioral activation (BA), social motivation (SM), and emotional sensitivity (ES)—could be found also in the f-AMI. A further exploratory analysis showed that a higher number of factors could be extracted, particularly for women. Specifically, both social and emotional factors could be divided into two sub-factors: (1) social motivation toward strangers or toward an acquaintance and (2) self-directed emotional sensitivity directed toward others. Regarding construct validity, the scores of f-AMI were correlated with the French Dimensional Apathy Scale results. Concerning the divergent validity, emotional sensitivity in apathy is different from depression, anhedonia, and fatigue levels.ConclusionThese results suggest that the f-AMI can be used to assess levels of apathy in healthy adults.</p

Additional file 1: of Antipsychotic prescribing for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders in specialized settings from 2010 to 2014 in France: a repeated cross-sectional study

Prevalence of antipsychotic prescribing in the community and in long-term care facilities. (DOCX 49 kb

Image_1_Cutoff scores for the “Interest game”, an application for the assessment of diminished interest in neurocognitive disorders.JPEG

Diminished interest is a core feature of apathy that shows high prevalence in people with Mild and Major Neurocognitive disorders (NCD). In the clinical setting, apathy is mainly assessed using clinical scales and questionnaires, but new technologies are starting to be employed to complement classical instruments. Here, we explored the performance of the “Interest game,” a ludic application that assesses personal interests, in discriminating between persons with and without diminished interest based on the Apathy Diagnostic Criteria. Two hundred and twenty-seven elderly participants (56 healthy controls, 118 persons with mild-NCD, and 53 with major-NCD) completed the Interest game and were assessed by clinicians concerning the presence and the severity of apathy. Results showed that the application scores varied with the presence of apathy, the type of disorder, and the education level. Cutoff scores calculated for persons with Mild-NCD resulted in a sensitivity of 0.68 and a specificity of 0.65 for the main score index, suggesting the interest of employing this application in the clinical setting to complement the classical assessment.</p

Table_1_Cutoff scores for the “Interest game”, an application for the assessment of diminished interest in neurocognitive disorders.docx

Diminished interest is a core feature of apathy that shows high prevalence in people with Mild and Major Neurocognitive disorders (NCD). In the clinical setting, apathy is mainly assessed using clinical scales and questionnaires, but new technologies are starting to be employed to complement classical instruments. Here, we explored the performance of the “Interest game,” a ludic application that assesses personal interests, in discriminating between persons with and without diminished interest based on the Apathy Diagnostic Criteria. Two hundred and twenty-seven elderly participants (56 healthy controls, 118 persons with mild-NCD, and 53 with major-NCD) completed the Interest game and were assessed by clinicians concerning the presence and the severity of apathy. Results showed that the application scores varied with the presence of apathy, the type of disorder, and the education level. Cutoff scores calculated for persons with Mild-NCD resulted in a sensitivity of 0.68 and a specificity of 0.65 for the main score index, suggesting the interest of employing this application in the clinical setting to complement the classical assessment.</p