Remote thinking tests linked to slightly higher scores
Telephone and video visits were associated with slightly higher thinking-test scores than in-person visits, with standardized differences of 0.21 to 0.26.
Limit: Unmeasured sensory impairment and technology literacy could affect both remote participation and test scores
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational study analyzed 27,144 visits by 13,219 adults aged 65 and older at 37 Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers. Visits took place from March 2020 through December 2024. Telephone and video assessments accounted for 20.8% of visits.
Remote visits were associated with slightly higher scores on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a test of thinking abilities. The standardized differences, which express score gaps on a common scale, ranged from 0.21 to 0.26. Memory and attention performance was modestly higher during remote visits. Differences in language and executive function—skills used to plan and manage tasks—were minimal. The authors described remote and in-person performance as largely comparable.
Why it matters
Cognitive assessments help researchers study changes in thinking with age. The authors concluded that remote testing could improve access and inclusion in Alzheimer's disease research.
Caveats
This observational analysis cannot establish that visit format caused the score differences. The findings concern adults aged 65 and older at Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers, not younger populations.
From the paper
- Participants
The final analytical sample comprised 13,219 unique participants from 37 ADRCs between March 2020 and December 2024 (Table 1).
- Limitation
First, because some measures could not be administered over the telephone but could be administered during video visits (e.g., Benson Complex Figure, Multilingual Naming Test), these measures were excluded from the analyses.
Quoted word for word from the full text on alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
- Telephone cognitive assessment
- Video cognitive assessment
- Montreal Cognitive Assessment
- Memory performance
- Attention performance
- Humans
The paper
Department of Neurology Massachusetts General Hospital Boston Massachusetts USA
Alzheimer's & Dementia, Nov 2, 2026, Open access, CC BY-NC-ND
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