Abstract Background and Aims Visuospatial deficits are common across several neurocognitive disorders and are typically assessed with visuoconstructional tests requiring copying of figures using paper and pencil. However, figure-copying tests are known to be susceptible to cultural and educational biases, limiting their utility in multicultural settings. This study aimed to explore the clinical utility of the Interlocking Finger Test in screening for visuospatial deficits in a multicultural memory clinic sample. Methods This was a prospective multicentre study across five European countries. Participants included 117 memory clinic patients and 63 cognitively healthy participants representing native-born and immigrant populations in Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. All participants completed a brief cross-cultural neuropsychological test battery and the Interlocking Finger Test. Results Interlocking Finger Test scores significantly correlated with visuospatial functions, global cognitive function, memory, executive functions, and language but not with depressive symptoms, age, years of education, sex, or immigrant status. The Interlocking Finger Test had acceptable diagnostic accuracy for visuospatial deficits and dementia, with areas under the curve of .72 and .71, respectively, with no significant differences between European native-born and immigrant participants. Conclusions The Interlocking Finger Test is a brief screening test for visuospatial and related cognitive deficits with encouraging preliminary utility in multicultural memory clinic populations but requires further validation before broader clinical implementation.
Nielsen et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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