Background: A reduced-item version of the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) has been proposed in healthy populations. This study aimed to preliminarily evaluate the reliability of this reduced-item version and its associations with other assessments in patients with subacute stroke.
Methods: A total of 98 patients with subacute stroke participated in this observational study. The FAB, the Stroop Color Word Test (SCWT), and the Trail Making Test (TMT) were administered within a 10-day period. Associations with related executive function assessments were examined using correlation coefficients. Test-retest reliability (ICC, 2,1) and internal consistency (Cα) were calculated.
Results: The reduced-item FAB score was strongly correlated with the FAB score (ρ = 0.99), reflecting substantial overlap due to shared items. The reduced-item FAB also showed moderate correlations with SCWT Parts 1-4 (ρ = 0.65-0.79), TMT Part B (ρ = -0.73), and TMT Part B minus A (ρ = -0.71). Both the ICC (2,1) and Cα were 0.94.
Conclusion: The reduced-item FAB score demonstrated strong internal and temporal consistency, along with expected associations with related cognitive measures in patients with subacute stroke. However, this study is a preliminary evaluation of a score derived from the original FAB.
Keywords: Frontal assessment battery; reliability; short version; stroke; validity.