Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2025
Journal / Book Title
Multiple Sclerosis Journal
Abstract
Background: Existing metrics of patient-reported cognitive difficulties in multiple sclerosis (MS) are lengthy, lack psychometric rigor, and/or fail to query prevalent expressive language deficits. Objective: Develop a brief psychometrically robust metric of patient-reported cognitive deficits that includes language items; the Multiple Sclerosis Cognitive Scale (MSCS). Method: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on 20 Perceived Deficits Questionnaire (PDQ) items plus five newly developed language questions in a large MS sample and matched respondents without neurologic disease. Independent confirmatory principal components analysis (PCA) assessed EFA factor structure. Reliability of the new scale and subscales, and relationships with objective cognitive impairment and cognitive change, were assessed. Results: EFA in patients (n = 502) and controls (n = 350), item analyses, and confirmatory PCA in an independent sample (n = 361 patients; 150 controls) supported construction of an eight-item scale with four two-item subscales: Executive/Speed, Working Memory, Expressive Language, and Episodic Memory. Internal consistency and test–retest reliability were excellent for the total MSCS (α = 0.93, ICC = 0.95) and good for each subscale (α’s:0.83–0.87; ICCs: 0.86–0.92). MSCS showed medium-size links to cross-sectional objective cognitive impairment (η2 =.06) and cognitive change over time (η2 =.07); the traditional PDQ did not (η2s = 0.01 and 0.02). Conclusion: The brief MSCS is a psychometrically robust, reliable, and valid metric of patient-reported cognitive deficits in MS that holds promise for improving assessment of MS cognitive dysfunction.
DOI
10.1177/13524585241309805
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Sumowski, James F. and Sandry, Joshua, "Multiple Sclerosis Cognitive Scale (MSCS): A brief psychometrically robust metric of patient-reported cognitive difficulty" (2025). Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 661.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/psychology-facpubs/661
Rights
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License.
Published Citation
Sumowski, J. F., & Sandry, J. (2025). Multiple Sclerosis Cognitive Scale (MSCS): A brief psychometrically robust metric of patient-reported cognitive difficulty. Multiple sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England), 31(3), 352–362. https://doi.org/10.1177/13524585241309805