ABSTRACT.
Semantic verbal fluency (SVF) is one of the most widely used tests for cognitive assessment due to its diagnostic utility (DU).
Objective:
our objective is to evaluate the DU to detect cognitive impairment (CI) of a short version of the SVF applied in 30 seconds (SVF1-30).
Methods:
a prospective sample of consecutive patients evaluated in a Neurology Unit between December 2016 and December 2017 were assessed with the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), 30-second and 60-second SVF tests (animals), and the Fototest, which includes a fluency task of people’s names. The DU for CI was evaluated by the area under the ROC curve and effect size (“d” Cohen).
Results:
the study included 1012 patients (256 with CI, 395 with dementia). SVF1-30 shows a good correlation with GDS stage. The DU of SVF1-30 is identical to that of the classical version, applied in 60 seconds, (SVFtotal) for CI (0.89 ± 0.01; p > 0.50), and shows no significant difference for dementia (0.85 ± 0.01 vs. 0.86 ± 0.01, p > 0.15).
Discussion:
the DU of SVF1-30 is similar to that of the SVFtotal, allowing a reduction in examination time with no loss of discriminative capacity.
Key words:
semantic verval fluency; diagnostic utility; Alzheimer’s disease; brief cognitive test
