Beth E. Snitz|Frederick W. Unverzagt|Chung Chou H. Chang|Joni Vander Bilt|Sujuan Gao|Judith Saxton|Kathleen Hall|Mary Ganguli
Effects of age, gender, education and race on two tests of language ability in community-based older adults
University of Pittsburgh
abstract background neuropsychological tests including tests language ability frequently used differentiate normal pathological cognitive aging however language particularly difficult assess standardized manner crosscultural studies patients different educational cultural backgrounds study examined effects age gender education race performance two language tests animal fluency task aft indiana university token test iutt report populationbased normative data tests two combined ethnically divergent cognitively normal representative population samples older adults methods participants aged 65 years monongahelayoughiogheny healthy aging team myhat indianapolis study health aging isha selected based 1 clinical dementia rating cdr score 0 2 nonmissing baseline language test data 3 race selfreported africanamerican white combined sample n 1885 281 africanamerican multivariate ordinal logistic regression used model effects demographic characteristics test scores results language tests better performance significantly associated higher education younger age white race iutt better performance also associated female gender found significant interactions age sex race education conclusions age education potent variables race gender influencing performance language tests demographically stratified normative tables measures used guide test interpretation aid clinical diagnosis impaired cognition