Adaption of the booklet category test for application in a Chinese culture

Abstract

The Booklet Category Test (BCT) is a modified, highly portable version of the Halstead Category Test that has been shown to be very sensitive to brain damage. The BCT is commonly used in neuropsychological assessment in Western countries, however, no information on psychometric properties of the BCT had been report in the Chinese population thus far. This is a single-center, hospital-based, prospective, case-controlled cognitive instrument validation study. The study objective is to examine the criterion, convergent and divergent validity, test-retest reliability, internal consistency and ease of administration of the BCT in Chinese. Ten healthy controls, 12 patients with focal frontal contusions and ten patients with non-frontal contusions were recruited. The Chinese BCT did not differentiate between patients with cerebral contusions from controls, or between patients with focal frontal contusions from those with non-frontal contusions using receiver operating curve analyses. However, it showed good convergent validity with tests of spatial reasoning and had acceptable divergent validity, excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s ss= .928) and test-retest reliability (ICC = .982, p < .982) and was generally well accepted by local participants. These results showed that the BCT is a valid and reliable clinical measure of spatial reasoning applicable to the Chinese population.