Examining Normative Reference Values and Item-Level Symptom Endorsement for the Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders (Neuro-QoL™) v2.0 Cognitive Function-Short Form

Abstract

Objective We examined the normative reference values, item-level symptom endorsement, internal consistency reliability, and the base rates of symptoms endorsed for the quality of life in neurological disorders (Neuro-QoL™) v2.0 Cognitive Function-Short Form. Method The Neuro-QoL™ v2.0 Cognitive Function-Short Form measures subjective cognitive difficulties. The normative sample from the U.S. general population was stratified by gender, education, health status, self-reported diagnosis of depression or anxiety, and recent mental health symptoms (i.e., endorsed frequent anxiety or depression symptoms in the last week). Results A cohort of 1,009 adults completed this scale and their mean score was 32.60 (SD = 6.89). The base rates of those who reported zero cognitive symptoms were consistently higher among the healthy samples (healthy men = 79.2%; all men = 63.9%; healthy women = 90.2%; all women = 80.0%). Endorsing three or more cognitive symptoms was more common in the mental health subgroups for both men (full men’s sample [n = 493] = 17.6%; depression subgroup [n = 70] = 30.0%; anxiety subgroup [n = 61] = 29.5%; mental subhealth group [n = 70] = 38.6%) and women (full women’s sample [n = 516] = 7.4%; depression subgroup [n = 123] = 13.0%; anxiety subgroup [n = 103] = 12.6%; mental health subgroup [n = 101] = 14.9%). Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach’s α and ranged from 0.87 to 0.94 across groups. Conclusions The Neuro-QoL™ v2.0 Cognitive Function-Short Form is a brief, efficient, and reliable measure of perceived cognitive difficulties. As expected, individuals with a favorable overall health and quality of life reported less cognitive symptoms than the total sample, whereas individuals with mental health difficulties reported more. These normative values and base rates stratified by gender, overall health, and mental health status may be useful when interpreting this measure in clinical practice.

Distinguishing features of Long COVID identified through immune profiling

“…At the time of blood collection, all participants completed patient-reported outcomes (PROs) for fatigue (Fatigue Severity Scale 60 , fatigue visual analogue scale [F-VAS]), post-exertional malaise (DePaul Symptom Questionnaire Post-Exertional Malaise Short Form [DSQ-PEM Short Form]) 61 , breathlessness (Medical Research Council [MRC] Breathlessness Scale 62 ), cognitive function (Neuro-QOL v2.0 Cognitive Function Short Form 63 ), health-related quality of life (HRQoL) (EuroQol EQ-5D-5L 64 ), anxiety (GAD-7 65 ), depression (PHQ-2 66 ), pain (P-VAS), sleep (Single-Item Sleep Quality Scale 67 ), and pre- and post-COVID-19 employment status (author-developed). Lastly, participants in the MY-LC study were asked to self-report any current persistent symptoms from a study provided list.…”

“…Evaluation of immunophenotyping results with an objectively derived propensity score was achieved through construction of a multivariable logistic regression model generated with Long COVID vs. others (Healthy Controls + Convalescent controls) as the outcome. Predictor variables included FSS 60 , F-VAS, DSQ-PEM Short Form, MRC Breathlessness Scale 62 , Neuro-QOL v2.0 Cognitive Function Short Form 63 , EQ-5D-5L 64 , GAD-7 65 , PHQ-2 66 , P-VAS, Single-Item Sleep Quality Scale 67 . Model selection using Akaike’s Information Criteria (AIC) was used to select the final, parsimonious model.…”

Distinguishing features of long COVID identified through immune profiling

“…At the time of blood collection, all of the participants completed patient-reported outcomes for fatigue (fatigue severity scale (FSS)) 53 , fatigue visual analogue scale), post-exertional malaise (DePaul symptom questionnaire post-exertional malaise short form (DSQ-PEM short form)) 54 , breathlessness (Medical Research Council (MRC) breathlessness scale 55 ), cognitive function (Neuro-QOL v.2.0 cognitive function short form 56 ), health-related quality of life (EuroQol EQ-5D-5L 57 ), anxiety (GAD-7) 58 , depression (PHQ-2) 59 , pain visual analogue scale, sleep (single-item sleep quality scale 60 ), as well as pre- and post-COVID-19 employment status (author developed). Finally, the participants in the MY-LC study were asked to self-report any current persistent symptoms from a study-provided list.…”

Sleep deprivation and recovery: Endurance racing as a novel model

“…Fatigue was measured using the PROMIS Fatigue Short Form 8a measure that asks participants to rate their level of fatigue (e.g., ‘How run‐down did you feel on average?’) on a 1–5 scale (e.g., ‘Not at all—Very much’), with higher scores indicating more fatigue (Yu et al., 2011 ). The 8‐item NEURO‐QOL Cognitive Function Short Form (Cella et al., 2012 ; Iverson et al., 2021 ) was used to measure participants' perception of their capacity for thinking and completing cognitive tasks (e.g., ‘I had trouble concentrating’) on a 1–5 scale (e.g., ‘Never—Very often (several times a day)’), with lower scores indicating compromised cognitive function.…”