Agradecimentos: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the This project is funded by grants from the Arthritis Society of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Physician’s Services Incorporated, the Province of Ontario Early Research Award, and the Lupus Research Alliance. Dr Michelle Barraclough is supported by a fellowship from the Arthritis Society. Dr Touma is supported by the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto. Dr Touma’s laboratory is supported by Lupus ON, the Schroeder Arthritis Institute and donations from the Kathi and Peter Kaiser family, the Lou and Marissa Rocca family, the Bozzo family, and the Stacey and Mark Krembil family. Dr Wither is supported by a Pfizer Chair Research Award Ver menos

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many research studies were adapted, including our longitudinal study examining cognitive impairment (CI) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Cognitive testing was switched from in-person to virtual. This analysis aimed to determine if the administration method (in-person vs. virtual) of the ACR-neuropsychological battery (ACR-NB) affected participant cognitive performance and classification. Data from our multi-visit, SLE CI study included demographic, clinical, and psychiatric characteristics, and the modified ACR-NB. Three analyses were undertaken for cognitive performance: (1) all visits, (2) non-CI group visits only and (3) intra-individual comparisons. A retrospective preferences questionnaire was given to participants who completed the ACR-NB both in-person and virtually. We analysed 328 SLE participants who had 801 visits (696 in-person and 105 virtual). Demographic, clinical, and psychiatric characteristics were comparable except for ethnicity, anxiety and disease-related damage. Across all three comparisons, six tests were consistently statistically significantly different. CI classification changed in 11/71 (15%) participants. 45% of participants preferred the virtual administration method and 33% preferred in-person. Of the 19 tests in the ACR-NB, we identified one or more problems with eight (42%) tests when moving from in-person to virtual administration. As the use of virtual cognitive testing will likely increase, these issues need to be addressed - potentially by validating a virtual version of the ACR-NB. Until then, caution must be taken when directly comparing virtual to in-person test results. If future studies use a mixed administration approach, this should be accounted for during analysis Ver menos