TY - JOUR
T1 - Southwestern Assessment of Processing Speed (SWAPS)
T2 - A new brief test with demographically-corrected norms in an ethnically and educationally diverse population
AU - TARCC Investigators#
AU - Cullum, C. Munro
AU - Galusha, Jeanine M.
AU - Wadsworth, Hannah E.
AU - Wilmoth, Kristin
AU - Hynan, Linda S.
AU - Lacritz, Laura H.
AU - LoBue, Christian
AU - Argueta-Ortiz, Francisco
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Objective. Neuropsychological measures of processing speed have long been used as sensitive indices of cognitive functioning. Most of these commonly used tests are proprietary, and there is a need for brief, freely available tools that can be used in diverse clinical and research settings. The Southwestern Assessment of Processing Speed (SWAPS) is a 60-second digit-symbol transcription task developed as a brief alternative to commercially available coding tests. Demographically-corrected normative data are presented along with reliability and sensitivity/specificity values in older adults with and without cognitive impairment. Method. SWAPS data from 915 healthy aging individuals (NC) and 858 subjects with clinical diagnoses of mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 430) and Alzheimer’s disease clinical syndrome (ADCS; n = 428) were obtained from the Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium (TARCC). TARCC participants represent ethnically and educationally diverse community-dwelling individuals age 50+. Results. SWAPS scores showed the expected associations with age, sex, and education, and the interaction between age and education were significant predictors of SWAPS scores. Test-retest reliability in NC was good, and the SWAPS distinguished impaired and non-impaired groups with adequate to excellent sensitivity and specificity for the primary analyses, with optimal cut-off points provided. Raw score- to uncorrected normalized T-scores and demographically-corrected SWAPS T-scores using regression-based norms are presented along with scoring programs for the calculation of each. Conclusions. The SWAPS is a brief, free, easily administered test with demographically-corrected regression-based norms and promising utility for detection of cognitive impairment and efficient assessment of processing speed.
AB - Objective. Neuropsychological measures of processing speed have long been used as sensitive indices of cognitive functioning. Most of these commonly used tests are proprietary, and there is a need for brief, freely available tools that can be used in diverse clinical and research settings. The Southwestern Assessment of Processing Speed (SWAPS) is a 60-second digit-symbol transcription task developed as a brief alternative to commercially available coding tests. Demographically-corrected normative data are presented along with reliability and sensitivity/specificity values in older adults with and without cognitive impairment. Method. SWAPS data from 915 healthy aging individuals (NC) and 858 subjects with clinical diagnoses of mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 430) and Alzheimer’s disease clinical syndrome (ADCS; n = 428) were obtained from the Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium (TARCC). TARCC participants represent ethnically and educationally diverse community-dwelling individuals age 50+. Results. SWAPS scores showed the expected associations with age, sex, and education, and the interaction between age and education were significant predictors of SWAPS scores. Test-retest reliability in NC was good, and the SWAPS distinguished impaired and non-impaired groups with adequate to excellent sensitivity and specificity for the primary analyses, with optimal cut-off points provided. Raw score- to uncorrected normalized T-scores and demographically-corrected SWAPS T-scores using regression-based norms are presented along with scoring programs for the calculation of each. Conclusions. The SWAPS is a brief, free, easily administered test with demographically-corrected regression-based norms and promising utility for detection of cognitive impairment and efficient assessment of processing speed.
KW - Processing speed
KW - T-score norms
KW - dementia
KW - demographically-corrected norms
KW - neuropsychological testing
KW - normal aging
KW - norms calculator
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U2 - 10.1080/13854046.2021.1970229
DO - 10.1080/13854046.2021.1970229
M3 - Article
C2 - 34554056
AN - SCOPUS:85115635828
SN - 1385-4046
VL - 36
SP - 2260
EP - 2277
JO - Clinical Neuropsychologist
JF - Clinical Neuropsychologist
IS - 8
ER -