Correlation of INECO Frontal Screening With Verbal Fluency Tasks and MMSE in Persian Healthy Population

Abstract

Introduction: INECO Frontal Screening (IFS) is a brief sensitive screening tool able to detect executive dysfunctions. IFS-P is the Persian version of IFS. This study aimed to investigate and analyze the correlation between IFS-P test with cognitive and executive function tests. We seek to investigate whether these tests can replace each other.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, IFS-P was administered to 50 healthy people along with other executive assessments such as phonological verbal fluency (letters A, S and F), semantic verbal fluency (animals, fruits and verbs), and a global cognitive efficiency test (Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE]). The Spearman coefficient test was used to investigate the correlation between IFS-P and other executive and general cognitive tests.
Results: The obtained results show no significant correlations between the IFS-P and the other cognitive instruments such as MMSE test. However, IFS-P correlates with verbal fluency tasks (semantic and phonological) in healthy people. Specifically, the correlation between IFS-P total score and other tests are as follows: for MMSE, r=0.20 (P=0.10); for/F/phonological verbal fluency, r=0.36(P=0.00); for/S/phonological verbal fluency, r=0.44 (P=0.00); for/A/phonological verbal fluency, r=0.35 (P=0.00); for fruits semantic verbal fluency, r=0.30, (P=0.00); for animals semantic verbal fluency, r=0.38 (P=0.00); and for verbs semantic verbal fluency, r=0.56, (P=0.00).
Conclusion: IFS-P is a brief, sensitive, and specific tool for the detection of executive dysfunction associated with neurodegenerative diseases. IFS-P correlates with the verbal fluency and does not correlate with the MMSE and cannot be replaced by them. Based on the results, we suggest that all three tests be used together.