EpiTrack® is a psychometrically sound screening tool for attention and executive function in a busy epilepsy monitoring unit.
Abstract number :
3.449
Submission category :
11. Behavior/Neuropsychology/Language / 11A. Adult
Year :
2025
Submission ID :
1441
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/8/2025 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Authors :
Presenting Author: Hannes Heppner, PhD – University of Wisconsin
Jana Jones, PhD – University of Wisconsin–Madison
Rationale: EpiTrack® was designed as a screening measure to assess the impact of antiseizure medication and was initially validated in a German speaking epilepsy population. To date, it has not been validated in a population of patients admitted for inpatient epilepsy monitoring in a comprehensive epilepsy center in the United States, which limits its clinical applicability. The current quality improvement study sought to close this gap and investigate the psychometric structure and validity of EpiTrack®.
Methods: ®. The sample consisted of 40 inpatients with epilepsy (Mean age = 36.5 years, SD = 13.8; 60% women; Education = 13.2 years, SD = 2.08). Mean duration of epilepsy was 13.3 years (SD = 11.4). Patients with a diagnosis of intellectual disability and non-epileptic seizures were excluded. A principal components analysis with varimax rotation was used on the six variables comprising EpiTrack®, replicating the initial validation study methods. Correlations to related gold-standard neuropsychological measures were used for convergent validity (WAIS-IV Working Memory and Processing Speed Indexes) and on unrelated constructs (WMS-IV LM and VR recognition) for discriminant validity.
Results: Results showed one underlying component explaining 31% of the total variance (loading range from 0.38 – 0.72). Convergent validity was demonstrated with working memory (r = .65, p < .001) and processing speed (r = .60, p < .001). Divergent validity showed expected non-significant results with visual recognition (r = .25) but did show a significant correlation with verbal recognition (r = .33, p = .03).
Conclusions: This study replicates the initial factor structure of EpiTrack® but is limited by a low sample size. Overall, results suggests that EpiTrack® may be a valid screening measure for attention and executive function in a busy clinical epilepsy monitoring unit.
Funding: None
Behavior