Background and Objective: Research examining the construct validity of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) using heterogeneous clinical samples generally has not supported the scale’s theoretically- derived factor structure. A recent study, however, has offered validation for the scale’s index structure in patients diagnosed with probable Alzheimer’s disease, highlighting the importance of evaluating the construct validity of neuropsychological tests in homogeneous patient samples. This investigation therefore sought to validate the index structure of the RBANS in a homogeneous sample of patients with multiple sclerosis.
Method: Participants were 89 patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis by board certified neurologists who were referred for outpatient neuropsychological testing. The RBANS was part of a fixed-flexible battery of measures administered according to standardized testing procedures.
Results: Results of a principal components analysis provided a two-factor model for the RBANS, consisting of components primarily but not exclusively involving memory and visual-spatial perception.
Conclusion: Findings of this study are consistent with the majority results in this line of RBANS research and suggest that sample heterogeneity may not be the underlying basis for repeated failures to support the scale’s theoretically derived index structure.

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