J Korean Geriatr Psychiatry.  2020 Oct;24(2):90-98. 10.47825/jkgp.2020.24.2.90.

Study on Validity and Reliability of the Hayling Test for Korean Older Adults

• Han KH
• Lee JY
• Lee JS
• Youn JH

• KMID: 2508440
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.47825/jkgp.2020.24.2.90

Abstract

Objective
The purpose of this study was to verify the validity and reliability of Korean elderly by translating the Hayling Test, a test that measures semantic inhibition ability among executive functions.
Methods
Total 91 participants were recruited in accordance with inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria for each group. Within them, 34 were normal from Dongjak-gu, Seoul, 29 were mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from clinics located in Seoul, and 28 were Alzheimer’s disease (AD) from clinics located in Seoul, respectively. The one-way analysis of covariance, the Bonferroni veri- fication, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, and the Brain Imaging analysis of voxel-based morphometry were conducted in order to compare and analyze performance of demographics characteristics of each group, Hayling Test results, and The Continuous Performance Test-X (CPTX) results.
Results
The comparison analysis showed the Hayling Test is more valid methodology than the CPTX test in discriminating nor- mal, MCI, and AD. Furthermore, ROC curves between normal and AD groups also demonstrated higher sensitivity (88%) and specificity (73%) of Hayling Test, and confirmed its diagnostic validity. In line with the above, brain imaging analysis displays sig-nificant positive correlation between temporal & frontal brain regions through the Hayling Test scores, however, this correlation was not found for CPTX.
Conclusion
It is expected that the Haling Test, which measures language inhibition function, can be used simply and usefully in diagnosing dementia.

Keyword

Hayling Test; Executive function; Inhibition; Mild cognitive impairment; Alzheimer’s disease