A comparison of methods for measuring cognitive change in older adults
Abstract
Well-researched statistical methods are required to guide clinicians in determining the significance of test score changes in serial neuropsychological assessment of older adults. The following six change score methods were examined using five-year test-retest data from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging: the standard deviation method, three reliable change indices (RCIs), and two standardized regression-based methods. Changes in scores on four memory measures were examined in cognitively healthy older adults, and the RCI with a correction for practice/aging effects most accurately classified this normal variability. Diagnostic change (i.e., developing dementia versus remaining cognitive healthy) was also examined in relation to memory test score changes. All change score methods were significantly associated with diagnostic change, though the strength of association varied by measure and method. In contrast to some previous research, RCIs were found to be useful when making diagnostic discriminations in older adults.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
RCIPE was used in this study because of its demonstrated usefulness in assessing cognitive change in older adults compared to alternative change score methods.
“To account for measurement error and practice effects inherent in repeated neuropsychological assessments, we used RCIPE 37 because of its demonstrated usefulness in assessing cognitive change in older adults compared to alternative change score methods.”
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Virtual reality in paediatric rehabilitation: a review
Parsons, T. D., Rizzo, A. A., Rogers, S., & York, P. (2009) · Developmental Neurorehabilitation · doi:10.1080/17518420902991719 · Cited by 192 · see citing works
Thacker, E. L., Gillett, S. R., Wadley, V. G., Unverzagt, F. W., Judd, S. E., McClure, L. A., Howard, V. J., & Cushman, M. (2014) · Journal of the American Heart Association · doi:10.1161/jaha.113.000635 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
and the Subjective Cognitive Decline Initiative (SCD-I) Working Group, Smart, C. M., Karr, J. E., Areshenkoff, C. N., Rabin, L. A., Hudon, C., Gates, N., Ali, J. I., Arenaza-Urquijo, E. M., Buckley, R. F., et al. (2017) · Neuropsychology Review · doi:10.1007/s11065-017-9342-8 · Cited by 145 · see citing works
Normal rates of cognitive change in successful aging: The Freedom House Study
ROYALL, D. R., PALMER, R., CHIODO, L. K., & POLK, M. J. (2005) · Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society · doi:10.1017/s135561770505109x · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Practice Effects: A Unique Cognitive Variable
Duff, K., Callister, C., Dennett, K., & Tometich, D. (2012) · The Clinical Neuropsychologist · doi:10.1080/13854046.2012.722685 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
Stein, J., Luppa, M., Luck, T., Maier, W., Wagner, M., Daerr, M., van den Bussche, H., Zimmermann, T., Köhler, M., Bickel, H., et al. (2012) · The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/jgp.0b013e318209dd08 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Göke, K., McClintock, S. M., Mah, L., Rajji, T. K., Lee, H. H., Nestor, S. M., Downar, J., Noda, Y., Daskalakis, Z. J., Mulsant, B. H., et al. (2026) · The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/07067437251315515 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
- Authors
- FRERICHS, R., & TUOKKO, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Victoria (CA)
- Corresponding author
- FRERICHS, R
- Venue
- Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2005-05
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 321-333
- ISSN
- 0887-6177 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2012215311
- Cited by
- 112
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 1.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Psychological Testing and Assessment
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Historical and Modern Theater Studies
- Keywords
- cognitive change, older adults, reliable change index, test-retest reliability, dementia diagnosis, Canadian Study of Health and Aging
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Canada, Cognition, Female, Humans, Male, Memory Disorders, Neuropsychological Tests, Predictive Value of Tests, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
