Using the virtual action planning-supermarket for evaluating executive functions in people with stroke.

Background: Our objectives are (1) to establish construct validity by comparing task performance with the Virtual Action Planning-Supermarket (VAP-S) by patients with stroke to healthy matched control subjects, (2) to establish concurrent validity by exploring relationships between VAP-S performance and Executive Functions (EFs) and ecological validity by exploring relationships between VAP-S performance and the Observed Tasks of Daily Living-Revised (OTDL-R), a measure of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), and (3) to determine which measures predict IADL performance in patients with stroke.

Methods: The research group included 24 men and women, aged 44-65 years, poststroke and the control group included 24 matched healthy people. The VAP-S and the Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS) were administered to evaluate EF. The stroke patients were tested with the OTDL-R.

Results: Significant differences between groups were found for 2 outcome measures of the VAP-S. In the research group, significant (P ≤ .05) moderate correlations were found between the VAP-S number of purchases and the BADS key search subtest (r = .48) and between the VAP-S number of correct actions and both the BADS action program (r = .47) and key search (r = .52) subtests. An exploratory stepwise multiple regression showed that the VAP-S number of correct actions and the profile score of the BADS were able to predict 56.2% of OTDL-R performance for the clients.

Conclusions: The VAP-S showed adequate validity and an ability to predict IADL performance, providing support for its use in cognitive stroke rehabilitation.