B - 86 Neurobehavioral Examination Total Memory Score as a Screener for Cognitive Impairment Diagnosis

Abstract Objective The neurobehavioral exam (NBE) quickly assesses patient’s neurological and behavioral status. This study aims to determine whether an individual’s NBE memory subtest is an effective screening tool for predicting cognitive diagnosis following a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. Method Data was collected from a clinical population of 173 adults (< 60 years old). Each patient was administered the NBE before comprehensive neuropsychological testing. The Total Memory Free Recall (TMFR) score was compared to the final cognitive diagnosis. Descriptive statistics, linear regression, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were conducted with IBM SPSS. Results Linear regression indicates that the TMFR accounts for 26.1% of the variance in the cognitive diagnosis (F (1, 171) = 60.29, p = <0.001, adjusted R2 = 0.26). Area under the curve (AUC) indicated good discriminative ability for screening patients with and without cognitive impairment based on their total memory recall score (AUC = 0.83). A TMFR raw score of <6 was determined as the optimal cutoff point for screening cognitive impairment yielding a sensitivity of 0.96 and a specificity of 0.62. Conclusion(s) The analyses completed indicate that TMFR on the NBE is predictive of cognitive diagnosis following comprehensive neuropsychological testing. Total memory recall raw score can be used as a screening measure for identifying cognitive impairment and making appropriate referral for comprehensive neuropsychological assessment.