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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Aging and Public Health

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1600131

This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing neuropsychological testing in detecting cognitive decline and cognitive profiling for disease identificationView all articles

Peruvian validation and standardization of the TabCAT-Brain Health Assessment

Provisionally accepted
Andrés Muñoz-NajarAndrés Muñoz-Najar1,2Manuel MontemurroManuel Montemurro2,3María del Carmen TejadaMaría del Carmen Tejada2,4Claudia Rivera- FernándezClaudia Rivera- Fernández5Miguel Sánchez-FernándezMiguel Sánchez-Fernández6Nilton CustodioNilton Custodio7Katherine L PossinKatherine L Possin8,9Elena TsoyElena Tsoy10,11Serggio Carlo LanataSerggio Carlo Lanata10,9*Marcio Soto-AñariMarcio Soto-Añari1
  • 1Laboratorio de Neurociencia Cognitiva, Universidad Católica San Pablo, Arequipa, Peru
  • 2Escuela de Psicología, Universidad del Alba, Santiago, Chile
  • 3Instituto de Bienestar Socioemocional, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile
  • 4Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region (RM), Chile
  • 5Universidad Tecnológica del Perú, Arequipa, Peru
  • 6Clinica del Sur, Arequipa, Arequipa, Peru
  • 7Instituto Peruano de Neurociencia, Lima, Peru
  • 8Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, United States
  • 9Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California, CA, USA and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland., San Francisco, United States
  • 10Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
  • 11Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California, CA, USA and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, San Francisco, United States

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Introduction: Detecting cognitive impairment in low-educated and marginalized populations may result in under-or over-estimation of diagnoses due to reliance on non-validated approaches and normative data. This study validates and standardizes TabCAT-BHA for older adults living in the Andean region of Peru using regression-based normalization. Methods: 258 participants were assessed with the MMSE, RUDAS, and TabCAT-BHA. Classified as either cognitively healthy or impaired based on Clinical Dementia Rating criteria. Results: By incorporating sex, place of residence, age, and years of education as covariates, the TabCAT-BHA demonstrated greater accuracy in detecting cognitive impariment (AUC = 75.3%) compared to the MMSE (AUC = 66.4%) and RUDAS (AUC = 71.4%). After incorporating only significant sociodemographic predictors, TabCAT-BHA obtained better AUC (77.4%) compared to MMSE (66.6%) and RUDAS (71.9%). Discussion: The TabCAT-BHA proves to be a valid tool for detecting cognitive impairment, and incorporating sociodemographic factors improves its accuracy in marginalized settings of Peru.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, cognitive assessment, Brief cognitive tests, regression-based norming, digital cognitive tools, Diagnostic accuracy, low educational attainment Con formato: Fuente: Cursiva Con formato: Fuente: Cursiva Con formato: Fuente: Cursiva Con formato: Fuente: Cursiva

Received: 25 Mar 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Muñoz-Najar, Montemurro, Tejada, Rivera- Fernández, Sánchez-Fernández, Custodio, Possin, Tsoy, Lanata and Soto-Añari. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Serggio Carlo Lanata, Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, United States

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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