Validation of the Chinese version of the NUCOG cognitive screening tool in patients with epilepsy, dementia and other neurological disorders

Abstract We aimed to develop and validate a Chinese version of the Neuropsychiatry Unit Cognitive Assessment Tool (NUCOG) for use in Chinese-speaking subjects internationally. Patients and healthy controls were recruited from two hospitals between July and October 2012. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were utilized to test criterion validity. Convergent validity was assessed via correlations between NUCOG and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Reliability was measured by internal consistency (Cronbach’s α). Patients with epilepsy (n = 144), neurological diseases (n = 81), dementia (n = 44), and controls (n = 260) completed the NUCOG and the MMSE. Overall, both NUCOG and MMSE scores differed significantly across the four groups with the highest scores in the control group and the lowest in the dementia group ( p