Sensitive measures of neuropsychological function were adapted to a
telephone administration format for use in a large survey of quality of
life in breast cancer survivors (BCS). Healthy controls (HC) and BCS were
recruited from the community and administered the same neuropsychological
test battery on two occasions separated by 1 week. Subjects were randomly
assigned to conditions, stratified by diagnosis: In-person at Time-1 and
In-person at Time-2 (P-P); Telephone at Time-1 and Telephone at Time-2
(T-T); T-P; and P-T. Four cognitive (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test,
Controlled Oral Word Association, Digit Span, Symbol Digit) and two
self-report measures (Squire Memory Self-Report Scale, Center for
Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) were used. The 106 subjects were
randomized (54 HC and 52 BCS). Test–retest reliabilities (intraclass
correlations) did not differ significantly by condition across the
cognitive or self-report measures and ranged from moderate to near perfect
(r's .43–.93; p's < .05). Mean scores
at Time-1, practice effects (Time-1 to Time-2), and standard errors of
measurement were comparable between In-person and Telephone administration
formats. Results suggest that memory, attention, information processing
speed, verbal fluency, and self-report of mood and memory can be measured
reliably and precisely over the telephone. (JINS, 2007,
13, 799–806.)