Background, Past Development and Current Status - NIH Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function

This presentation will discuss how the Toolbox supports NIH's affirmation that longitudinal research spanning pediatric to geriatric populations and assessing normative functioning of multiple domains of neurological and behavioral health are required to understand developmental processes in illness etiology. Measures such as those developed as part of the Toolbox are rarely included in large epidemiological studies where functioning is monitored over time, due in no small part to the lack of instruments that are well-validated and have a short administration time. While there are many assessments in these domains, they are expensive, normed on homogeneous non-diverse populations, and do not readily produce data that can be compared across studies. Upon completion, the Toolbox will provide investigators, including both pediatric and aging specialists across four primary domains, an innovative approach to measurement that will be responsive to research needs in a variety of settings, with a particular emphasis on measuring outcomes in large cohort studies such as epidemiological, large longitudinal, and prevention or intervention trials. The Toolbox will greatly facilitate cross-study comparisons involving a wide variety of nonclinical and clinical populations.