THE NIH TOOLBOX: A NEW ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR MEASURING NEUROLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL FUNCTIONS JinShei L

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THE NIH TOOLBOX A NEW ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR
MEASURING NEUROLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL
FUNCTIONSJin-Shei Lai,1,2 Richard Gershon,1,2
David Blitz,1 Susan Magasi,1,2 Cindy Nowinski,1,2
David Reuben,3 William Rymer,2,4 Sandra
Weintraub,2 Molly Wagster,51Center on Outcomes,
Research and Education (CORE), NorthShore
University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL
2Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
3University of California, Los Angeles
4Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago 5National
Institute of Health On Behalf of the Toolbox
Motor and Cognition Teams
METHODS We conducted on-line surveys of and
in-depth interviews with investigators who had
expertise in the motor and/or cognition domains
and/or experience in conducting large cohort,
pre-clinical and clinical studies. These
investigators were asked to provide key FCs for
assessing motor and cognitive function and rank
them based on conceptual and clinical relevance.
A follow-up consensus meeting involving the NIH
project team, external advisory group, and
Toolbox steering committee members was held to
finalize the FCs to be included in the Toolbox
AIMS The NIH Toolbox, part of the NIH
Neurological Blueprint initiative, seeks to
develop brief, comprehensive assessment tools
measuring motor, cognitive, sensory and emotional
health and function. Upon completion, the Toolbox
will be available for use in longitudinal
epidemiologic studies and prevention or
intervention trials for people ages 3-85, with
the ultimate goal of providing 1) uniformity
among measures across disease groups, and 2)
measures that demonstrate stable psychometric
properties across the lifespan. An early task of
the project was to identify core functional
constructs (FCs) within each domain. Because
motor and cognitive functions are two areas of
major concern for patients with brain tumors, in
this poster we describe these particular areas as
examples
RESULTS 147 responded to an on-line request for
information. Additionally, 12 and 8 respondents,
respectively, completed in-depth interviews for
motor and cognition. The results were reviewed by
the NIH project team and external advisory group.
The follow-up consensus meeting led to the
inclusion of locomotion, balance, dexterity,
strength, and endurance for motor, and attention,
episodic memory, executive function, language,
processing speed and working memory for
cognition.
MOTOR
COGNITION
SAMPLE INSTRUMENTS
CONCLUSIONS An online information collection,
in-depth interviews, and a consensus meeting were
used to identify key FCs of motor and cognitive
functions. Similar procedures were used for
domains of sensory and emotional health and
function. With an available toolbox of measures,
yields from these large and very expensive
studies can be maximized by allowing a much
larger number of important research questions
regarding neurological and behavioral health to
be studied, with respect to both the primary
study aims and secondary data analyses, with a
minimal increment in subject burden and cost. By
ensuring that the assessment methods are
comparable to those of existing and completed
studies and that they can incorporate
modifications/improvements in the future, a truly
economic and valuable resource will be
available for the neuroscience community
Funded in whole or in part with Federal funds
from the Blueprint for Neuroscience Research,
National Institutes of Health, under Contract
HHS-N-260-2006 00007-C (PI Richard Gershon).