Frontal Assessment Battery: Reliability, validity and discriminative ability in a Spanish sample of amnestic mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

Dementia constitutes one of the most widespread neurological disorders, representing an important health concern due to its increasing prevalence. Among the various types of dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common in the elderly, characterized by episodic memory impairment and also a decline in executive functions. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is considered a transitional stage between normal ageing and dementia, often described as a pre-dementia state. Distinguishing between these states is of paramount importance for the detection and appropriate care of patients. Functional Assessment Battery (FAB) is a screening tool for assessing executive function. In this study, 36 healthy individuals (HC), 31 single-domain amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients, and 29 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients were assessed using FAB to determine its reliability, validity, and discriminative validity in a Spanish sample. Results indicated a good internal consistency of FAB in the AD sample (α = .71), but not in the aMCI group (α = .49). Significant differences between HC and both aMCI and AD groups were observed in the total scores of FAB. The FAB also showed good accuracy in distinguishing between HC and patients (AUC = 0.85), with an estimated optimal cut-off point of 16.5. However, its ability to distinguish between aMCI and AD individuals was lower (AUC = 0.68). More studies are necessary to corroborate our results using larger samples.