Article

Number-processing may be altered following brain injury and might
affect the everyday life of patients. We developed the first ecological tool to
assess number-processing disorders in brain-injured patients, the Ecological
Assessment Battery for Numbers (EABN; in French, the BENQ). The aim of the
present study was to standardize and validate this new tool.
METHODS: Standardization included 126 healthy controls equally distributed by
age, sex and sociocultural level. First, 17 patients were evaluated by the EABN;
then scores for a subgroup of 10 were compared with those from a French
analytical calculation test, the Evaluation Clinique des Aptitudes Numeriques
(ECAN). The concordance between the EABN and the ECAN was analyzed to determine
construct validity. Discrimination indexes were calculated to assess the
sensitivity of the subtests. RESULTS: Standardization highlighted a major effect
of sociocultural level. In total, 9 of 17 patients had a pathological EABN score,
with difficulties in telling time, making appointments and reading numerical
data. The results of both the EABN and ECAN tests were concordant (Kendall's
w=0.97). Finally, the discriminatory power was good, particularly for going to
the movies, cheque-writing and following a recipe: scores were>0.4. CONCLUSION:
The EABN is a new tool to assess number-processing disorders in adults. This tool
has been standardized and has good psychometric properties for patients with
brain injury.
CI - Copyright (c) 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS