Developing a telehealth-based assessment battery for older Australians

Telehealth technologies can provide important healthcare services for people in rural and remote areas. In older adults, cognition, social cognition, mood, and functional independence are key predictors of dementia, however few assessment tools are validated for telehealth administration. This study examined the agreement between face-to-face and telehealth administration of five assessments: ACE-III, BASS, HADS, MBI, and ALSAR-R2. Thirty-nine healthy participants (18 male) over 50 years of age (M = 71.9, SD = 11.7) were randomized to face-to-face-first or telehealth-first test format, followed by the alternate format within five weeks. Eligible participants completed all assessment items, and telehealth was well tolerated. High mean intra-class correlations (ICC = .913 to ICC = .995) were found for each assessment across formats. Overall, this research provides preliminary evidence for the feasibility and reliability of conducting these assessments via telehealth. Further research should explore telehealth-based assessment with people diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and dementia.