Introduction: Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and Alzheimer’s
disease are the most common cognitive impairment diseases in the
elderly. This study aimed to apply the Repeatable Battery for Assessment
of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) scale to evaluate VCI in elderly
patients and analyze its reliability and validity.
Methods: We enrolled 278 VCI patients admitted to our hospital, from
June 2017 to June 2018. The basic clinical information of each patient
was documented, and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and
the RBANS scales were suggested to complete.
Results: We found significant correlations between the RBANS total
score and age, diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and years
of education. The internal consistency of the RBANS scale Cronbach α
suggested a good agreement with the total score and the single score at
two time points. Moreover, the RBANS total score and the score of each
dimension in the RBANS scale were positively correlated with the MMSE
immediate memory, calculation ability, delayed memory, commanding
ability, reading comprehension ability, command execution, sentence
making, and pattern duplicating ability.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the RBANS has good reliability and validity
for the assessment of cognitive dysfunction in elderly VCI patients. It
can be used as a routine clinical and research tool, for the simplicity in
operation and superior acceptance.
Keywords: RBANS scale, MMSE scale, vascular cognitive impairment,
cognitive impairment, elderly patient