Affiliation:
1. Laboratory for Early Markers of Neurodegeneration, Center for the Study of Movement, Cognition, and Mobility Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Tel Aviv Israel
2. Occupational Therapy Department University of Haifa Haifa Israel
3. Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv Israel
4. Yale University School of Medicine and Coeruleus Clinical Sciences Woodbridge Connecticut USA
5. Genomic Research Laboratory for Neurodegeneration Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Tel Aviv Israel
6. Occupational Therapy Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer Israel
Abstract
AbstractBackground and purposeSubtle executive dysfunction is common in people newly diagnosed with Parkinson disease (PD), even when general cognitive abilities are intact. This study examined the Short Weekly Calendar Planning Activity (WCPA‐10)'s known‐group construct validity, comparing persons with PD to healthy controls (HCs) and nonmanifesting carriers of LRRK2 and GBA gene mutations to HCs. Additionally, convergent and ecological validity was examined.MethodsThe study included 73 participants: 22 with idiopathic PD (iPD) who do not carry any of the founder GBA mutations or LRRK2‐G2019S, 29 nonmanifesting carriers of the G2019S‐LRRK2 (n = 14) and GBA (n = 15) mutations, and 22 HCs. Known‐group validity was determined using the WCPA‐10, convergent validity by also using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Color Trails Test (CTT), and ecological validity by using the WCPA‐10, Schwab and England Activities of Daily Living Scale (SE ADL), and Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE).ResultsKnown‐group validity of the WCPA‐10 was established for the iPD group only; they followed fewer rules (p = 0.020), were slower (p = 0.003) and less efficient (p = 0.001), used more strategies (p = 0.017) on the WCPA‐10, and achieved significantly lower CTT scores (p < 0.001) than the HCs. The nonmanifesting carriers and HCs were similar on all cognitive tests. Convergent and ecological validity of the WCPA‐10 were partially established, with few correlations between WCPA‐10 outcome measures and the MoCA (r = 0.50, r = 0.41), CTT‐2 (r = 0.43), SE ADL (r = 0.41), and PASE (r = 0.54, r = 0.46, r = 0.31).ConclusionsThis study affirms the known‐group validity for most (four) WCPA‐10 scores and partially confirms its convergent and ecological validity for PD.