Despite the wide usage of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Canadian Stroke Network (NINDS-CSN) neuropsychological battery for the detection of vascular cognitive impairment, its reliability and validity have not been established. Therefore, the present study established the psychometric properties of the battery in cognitively normal older adults in a clinical setting in Singapore.
Longitudinal study.
A total of 105 cognitively normal older adults age 50 years and older were assessed in a memory clinic setting.
The 60-minute NINDS-CSN and 5-minute protocol were administered to participants at baseline and 3-month follow-up. Raw scores were transformed into standardized z scores. Test-retest reliability, concurrent validity and construct (convergent and discriminant) validity were reported.
Moderate-to-excellent test-retest reliability (r = 0.36-0.87), concurrent validity, and construct validity (r = 0.41-0.83) were found in both protocols over 3 months (all Ps < 0.01). Although the 5-minute protocol showed moderate validity (r = 0.41), the 60-minute protocol had excellent concurrent validity against a locally validated neuropsychological battery (r = 0.83).
The NINDS-CSN is reliable and valid in assessing cognitive function. The 60-minute protocol demonstrates great utility beyond its current usage in vascular cognitive impairment populations to the general older adult population. The 5-minute protocol can be used as a brief cognitive screening tool in primary healthcare and the community, due to its brevity and accuracy. Future research should further examine the generalizability of the NINDS-CSN battery in other dementias and cognitive disorders.

BACKGROUND: The NINDS-Canadian Stroke Network (NINDS-CSN) recommended a neuropsychological battery of three protocols to diagnose vascular cognitive impairment (VCI), however, due to culture and language differences, the battery cannot be directly used in China. Validation of the battery in mandarin Chinese is lacking. Our study investigated the reliability and validity of the adapted Chinese versions of the battery in stroke patients with high probability of VCI.
METHODS: Fifty mild stroke patients (median of National Institute of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSS] score, 2) and 50 stroke-free normal controls were recruited. All subjects\' demographics, clinical history, and stroke severity were recorded. The NINDS-CSN neuropsychological protocols were adapted into the Chinese versions. External validity, defined as the ability of the protocol summary scores to differentiate stroke patients from controls, was determined using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristics curve. We also evaluated internal consistency and intra-rater reliability.
RESULTS: Stroke patients performed significantly poorer than controls on all three protocols (F statistics between 24.9 and 31.4, P < 0.001). External validity evaluated by AUCs was 0.88 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.81-0.95), 0.88 (95% CI, 0.81-0.94), and 0.86 (95% CI, 0.79-0.94) for the 60-min, 30-min and 5-min protocols, respectively. Cronbach\'s alpha of the cognitive tests was 0.87 for all subjects. Intra-rater reliability was acceptable with intraclass correlation coefficients 0.90, 0.83 and 0.75 for the 60-min, 30-min and 5-min protocols, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: The adapted Chinese versions of three NINDS-CSN neuropsychological protocols were valid and reliable for assessing VCI in Chinese patients with mild stroke.