Test of Everyday Cognitive Ability Effectively Assesses Multiple Sclerosis-Related Impairment

For patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), the Test of Everyday Cognitive Ability (TECA) combines 10 timed instrumental activities of daily living for an assessment that includes a broad range of task difficulties, requires minimal motor involvement, and is sensitive to MS-related cognitive impairment, according to results published in Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.

The items included in the TECA are finding a telephone number, making change, reading a label, finding items, reading a medicine bottle, buying grocery items, finding a name and address, finding a telephone number for a business, reviewing a shopping list, and recalling medicine bottle information.

The study included participants with MS (n=177) and healthy controls (n=49). Each participant underwent the TECA and a standard battery of neuropsychological measures.

Participants with MS had significantly worse TECA performances compared with control participants. Additionally, participants with MS who had cognitive impairment performed significantly slower compared with participants with MS without cognitive impairment.

“Administered using a standardized and portable kit, the TECA is feasible for clinical settings and across sites in clinical trials. While we have shown the TECA to be useful in MS, the items are generalizable to other disorders associated with a range of cognitive impairment, including those with only mild to moderate deficits,” the researchers wrote.

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