Development and Validation of the Korean Version of the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioral Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Screen (ECAS-K)
- Author:
Jeeun LEE
1
;
Ahwon KIM
;
Seok-Jin CHOI
;
Eric CHO
;
Jaeyoung SEO
;
Seong-il OH
;
Jinho JUNG
;
Ji-Sun KIM
;
Jung-Joon SUNG
;
Sharon ABRAHAMS
;
Yoon-Ho HONG
Author Information
- Publication Type:ORIGINAL ARTICLE
- From:Journal of Clinical Neurology 2023;19(5):454-459
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Background:and Purpose Cognitive and behavioral changes are common in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), with about 15% of patients presenting with overt frontotemporal dementia and 30%–50% with varying degrees of impairments. We aimed to develop and validate the Korean version of the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioral ALS Screen (ECAS-K), a brief multidomain assessment tool developed for ALS patients with physical disability.
Methods:We developed the ECAS-K according to the translation guidelines, and administered it to 38 patients with ALS and 26 age- and education-level-matched controls. We also administered the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) to investigate convergent validity, and the Center for Neurologic Study-Liability Scale to assess the association between pseudobulbar affect and cognitive/behavioral changes.
Results:Internal consistency among the ECAS-K test items was found to be high, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.87. Significant differences were found between patients with ALS and the controls in language, fluency, and memory functions (p<0.05). Abnormal performance based on the ECAS total score was noted in 39.4% of patients, and 66.6% presented behavioral changes in at least one domain. Significant correlations were observed between the scores of the ECAS-K and those of other cognitive screening tools (MoCA and FAB, with correlation coefficients of 0.69 and 0.55, respectively; p<0.01).
Conclusions:We developed and validated the ECAS-K which could be used as an effective tool to screen the cognitive and behavioral impairments in Korean patients with ALS.
