Objective: Arabic is the official language of 26 countries and is the native language of more than 250 million people worldwide. However, there has been very little translation, adaptation or validation of Arabic forms of neuropsychological instruments. The Addenbrookes Cognitive Examination- Revised (ACE-R) is a brief cognitive screening tool that has been well validated in relation to the assessment of cognitive impairments associated with dementia. The present study involved the translation, adaptation and validation of an Arabic ACE-R. The study involved data collection from both literate and non-literate participants. Participants and Methods: The ACE-R was translated into Arabic (and back-translated to check for accuracy). Some items were adapted for an Arabic cultural context. Data was collected from four groups:(1)Healthy literate participants (N=134);(2)Healthy illiterate participants (N=282);(3)Literate participants with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) (N=32);(4)Illiterate patients with a clinical diagnosis of AD or MCI (N=159). Receiver Operating Curve (ROC) analyses were undertaken to examine the sensitivity and specificity of the Arabic ACE-R in the detection of participants with a clinical diagnosis (AD or MCI) from healthy participants. Results: ROC analysis demonstrated that the Arabic ACE-R appears to have good sensitivity and specificity. For the literate sample, the Area Under Curve (AUC) statistic was 1.00, reflecting complete separation of patients and controls. For the illiterate sample, the AUC statistic was 0.996, reflecting very clear, although not complete, separation of the clinical and healthy participant samples. Conclusions: The Arabic ACE-R appears to be a useful instrument for the assessment of cognitive impairment arising from a degenerative neurological condition. This project provides normative data for literate and illiterate samples, which is important given that high levels of illiteracy still exist in older persons in many countries.

Evans JJ, Al Salman A, Wahass S, Rahmanaltahan A, Balubaid H, Algereshah F. Validation of an arabicversion of the addenbrookes cognitive examination-revised. Brain Impairment. 2011;12:24.

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