Key result
Thermal stress fails to impact neurobehavioral performance across simulated operational field environments.
Why the study?
It is critical to determine if performance on the Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment is adversely affected by operationally-relevant field environments.
Does thermal stress affect performance on the Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA) in healthy U.S. Navy service members?
Observational (n=16)
Does thermal stress affect performance on the Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA) in healthy U.S. Navy service members?
Performance on the Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA) remains stable across different thermal stress environments, supporting its reliability in operational settings.
May reassure on thermal effects for neurobehavioral testing; leaves open generalization to operational military settings.
Neurocognitive assessment tools (NCAT) are commonly used to screen for changes in cognitive functioning following a mild traumatic brain injury and to assist with a return to duty decision. As such, it is critical to determine if performance on the Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA) is adversely affected by operationally-relevant field environments. Differences in DANA performance between a thermoneutral environment and three simulated operationally-relevant field environments across the thermal stress continuum were calculated for 16 healthy U.S. Navy service members. Practice effects associated with brief test-retest intervals were calculated within each environmental condition. There were no significant differences between the simulated environmental conditions suggesting that performance on the DANA Brief is not impacted by thermal stress. Additionally, there were no significant differences in performance within each simulated environmental condition associated with repeated administrations.
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Haran et al. (2016) conducted an observational in Healthy (n=16). Simulated operationally-relevant field environments (thermal stress) vs. Thermoneutral environment was evaluated on Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA) performance. Thermal stress across simulated operationally-relevant field environments did not significantly impact Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment performance in 16 healthy service members.
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