Validity and reliability of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the BACS (Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia)

OBJECTIVE: To assess the validity and reliability of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia by examining its temporal stability, internal consistency, and discriminant and convergent validity. METHODS: The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was administered to 116 stable patients with schizophrenia and 58 matched control subjects. To assess concurrent validity, a subset of patients underwent a traditional neuropsychological assessment. RESULTS: The patients with schizophrenia performed significantly worse than the controls (p<0.001) on all subtests of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia and on the total score, which attests to the discriminant validity of the test. The global score of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was significantly correlated with all of the subtests and with the global score for the standard battery. The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia also had good test-retest reliability (rho>0.8). The internal consistency of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was high (Cronbach's α ϝ 0.874). CONCLUSION: The Brazilian Portuguese version of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia exhibits good reliability and discriminant and concurrent validity and is a promising tool for easily assessing cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and for comparing the performance of Brazilian patients with that of patients from other countries.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Araújo,Geovany Eliberto, Resende,Camilo Brandão de, Cardoso,Ana Cecília Alves, Teixeira,Antonio Lúcio, Keefe,Richard S.E., Salgado,João Vinícius
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Faculdade de Medicina / USP 2015
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1807-59322015000400278
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:OBJECTIVE: To assess the validity and reliability of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia by examining its temporal stability, internal consistency, and discriminant and convergent validity. METHODS: The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was administered to 116 stable patients with schizophrenia and 58 matched control subjects. To assess concurrent validity, a subset of patients underwent a traditional neuropsychological assessment. RESULTS: The patients with schizophrenia performed significantly worse than the controls (p<0.001) on all subtests of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia and on the total score, which attests to the discriminant validity of the test. The global score of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was significantly correlated with all of the subtests and with the global score for the standard battery. The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia also had good test-retest reliability (rho>0.8). The internal consistency of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was high (Cronbach's α ϝ 0.874). CONCLUSION: The Brazilian Portuguese version of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia exhibits good reliability and discriminant and concurrent validity and is a promising tool for easily assessing cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and for comparing the performance of Brazilian patients with that of patients from other countries.