ABSTRACT

Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and concurrent validity of a Computerbased cognitive evaluation system (called COSAS) for evaluating the cognitive level of the Korean elderly and to provide its normative data. Methods : For this purpose, 302 normal elderly people participated in a investigation to provide the normative data of COSAS. 52 stroke patients participated in an evaluation experiment to verify the reliability and validity. 302 normal elderly participants were evaluated using COSAS. The 52 stroke patients were evaluated with COSAS and two standardized assessment tools (MMSE-K, CSOA). COSAS consists of the orientation, memory, attention, visual perception, language ability, calculation ability and sequencing evaluation domains. Because the proposed system is an evaluation tool based on a computer system, all results and operations are processed consistently and automatically. Results : The results were as follows. The average accuracy was 45.03, and the standard deviation was 5.58. The average response speed time was 15.14 (sec), and the standard deviation was 3.69 (sec). Chronbach’s αscore of the inter-item consistency was .66. There was no difference in the average score between two investigators. COSAS was highly correlated with MMSE-K (r=.73) and with CSOA (r=.76). The specific domains of COSAS were correlated with MMSE-K and the common domains of CSOA. Conclusion : Normative data of COSAS for the Korean elderly were obtained, and the guidelines for the interpretation were provided. A reliable and valid clinically applicable computerized cognitive evaluation system was developed.