New paper presenting our digital Multiple Errands Test

Many stroke survivors have difficulties with complex thinking tasks following their stroke, with around 80% of survivors showing some form of this. Any problems in any or all of these complex abilities, such as planning, organisation, stopping actions or swapping actions can make it difficult to do many tasks of everyday life, affecting people’s independence and enjoyment of life. Tests that assess these complex mental abilities are typically quite abstract, involving connecting shapes, or finding patterns. These kind of tests also commonly miss those survivors who do well in a structured environment, like a lab or hospital, but have difficulties when having to organise their days or behaviour when distractions and interruptions are more common. The Oxford Digital Multiple Errands Test (OxMET) is a short to administer but powerful new test that uses a shopping scenario, more like the everyday real life complex situations, in an engaging and friendly way, without intimidating and abstract contexts.

This simple test is based around a common shopping scenario where an individual has 6 items to buy and 2 questions to answer. The trick is that there are rules to follow when completing the task that trips people up. Performance on this relatively simple task can reveal  a person’s ability to manage complex tasks. Further research will investigate whether this test done before a home-discharge can be helpful to understand how well people will cope independently once home, and what levels of support to put in place

 

paper reference:

Sam S. Webb, Anders Jespersen, Evangeline G. Chiu, Francesca Payne, Romina Basting, Mihaela D. Duta & Nele Demeyere (2021) The Oxford digital multiple errands test (OxMET): Validation of a simplified computer tablet based multiple errands test, Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, DOI: 10.1080/09602011.2020.1862679

 

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