Practice effects and test-re-test reliability of the Five Digit Test in patients with stroke over four serial assessments

AbstractObjectives: To investigate practice effect and test–re-test reliability of the Five Digit Test (FDT) over four serial assessments in patients with stroke.Design: Single-group repeated measures design.Methods: Twenty-five patients with stroke were administered the FDT in four consecutive assessments every 2 weeks. The FDT contains four parts with five indices: ‘basic measures of attention and processing speed’, ‘selective attention’, ‘alternating attention’, ‘ability of inhibition’ and ‘ability of switching’.Results: The five indices of the FDT showed trivial-to-small practice effects (Cohen’s d = 0.03–0.47) and moderate-to-excellent test–re-test reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient = 0.59–0.97). Practice effects of the five indices all appeared cumulative, but one index, ‘basic measures of attention and processing speed’, reached a plateau after the second assessment. The minimum and maximum values of the 90% confidence interval (CI) of reliable change index modified for practice (RCIp...