# Analysis of the A-B Neuropsychological Assessment Schedule as a Cognitive Screener for Long COVID

## TL;DR

This study evaluates how well the A-B Neuropsychological Assessment Schedule can detect cognitive issues in people with long COVID.

## Contribution

The study identifies optimal cut-off scores for the ABNAS to screen for long COVID with high sensitivity and specificity.

## Key findings

- A total ABNAS score of ≥21.5 has 81.6% sensitivity and 72.3% specificity for long COVID.
- The fatigue subscale score of ≥8.5 has 66.7% sensitivity and 87.2% specificity.
- The mental slowing subscale score of ≥4.5 has 82.8% sensitivity and 70.3% specificity.

## Abstract

Aim

To determine the sensitivity and specificity of the psychometric measures of the A-B Neuropsychological Assessment Schedule (ABNAS) to aid screening of long COVID (LC).

Methods

The participants (N=235) were recruited from an online study of cognitive and psychological consequences of LC, involving individuals attending an LC service in an acute tertiary university hospital and a comparison sample of community controls.The ABNAS for LC, a patient-perceived assessment scale in relation to the challenges they had encountered from LC, was used to identify the specific psychometric measures implicated in LC.

Results

The optimal cut-off value for total ABNAS scores and its psychometric subsets were obtained from receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The sensitivity of the total ABNAS score of ≥21.5 was 81.6% for LC, taken as a post-COVID functional status (PCFS)grade of ≥ 2 as true positives, with a specificity = 72.3%.

The specificity of the ABNAS fatigue subscale score of ≥ 8.5 for LC was 87.2%, while its sensitivity was 66.7%. The sensitivity of the ABNAS mental slowing subscale score of ≥ 4.5 was 82.8%, and the specificity was 70.3%.

Conclusion

Total ABNAS scores and their psychometric subsets (fatigue and mental slowing) are sensitive and specific for LC.