Objective:

Assess the suitability of a new version of the CoRe (Cognitive Reaction) test in people with MS (pwMS).

Background:

The UK MS Register(UKMSR) team have previously developed an iPad-based application [Middleton et al 2020] suitable for rapid cognitive assessment in pwMS. The CoRe test was shown to be an adequate proxy for the paper Symbol Digit Modality Test in UK MS Clinics. We have iterated the test, allowing deployment on personal phones and tablets for home-based assessment of cognition.

Design/Methods:

Utilising the existing CoRe test codebase we developed a variant for devices other than iPads. We added additional symbol sets (Emoji and Pictograms) to the existing 'Classic' symbols that were generated randomly for pwMS. We removed the 'next' symbol from the interface. This version has given to healthy participants and pwMS.

Results:

The initial version was tested in 14 controls and we aim to recruit 1000 pwMS. After one day of release 21 pwMS have returned data. Demographics included 5 men and 16 women, average age 51.9 years and average disease length 22.2 years. People performed similarly to the previous version whether it be on phone or iPad and answered the Emoji symbols faster (0.018).

Conclusions:

The CoRe Version2 from initial data appears to perform as well as Version1. There are differences in speed of response depending on the symbol sets chosen. The test appears suitable for use by clinical teams.