RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: 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. MATERIAL AND 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 Évaluation Clinique des Aptitudes Numériques (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.
