Normative data for tests of attention and executive functions in a sample of European Portuguese adult population

Normative scores for attentional tests used by the Spanish consortium for ageing normative data (SCAND) study: Trail Making Test, Digit Symbol and Letter Cancellation

Objective: This paper reports normative data for different attentional tests obtained from a sample of middle-aged and older native Spanish adults and considering effects of age, educational level and sex. Method: 2,597 cognitively intact participants, aged from 50 to 98 years old, participated voluntarily in the SCAND consortium studies. The statistical procedure included conversion of percentile ranges into scaled scores. The effects of age, education and sex were taken into account. Linear regressions were used to calculate adjusted scaled scores. Results: Scaled scores and percentiles corresponding to the TMT, Digit Symbol and Letter Cancellation Task are shown. Additional tables show the values to be added to or subtracted from the scaled scores, for age and education in the case of the TMT and Letter Cancellation Task measures, and for education in the case of the Digit Symbol subtest. Conclusions: The current norms provide clinically useful data for evaluating Spanish people aged 50 to 98 years old and contribute to improving detection of initial symptoms of cognitive impairment.

Predicting normative data in healthy individuals on the computerized wisconsin card sorting test using regression models

BACKGROUND

Computerized neuropsychological tests provide advantages to clinicians with cost, administration, and time. However, studies have pointed out performance differences between manual and computerized versions of some neuropsychological tests. One of these is the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Due to the performance difference, the normative data of manual tests cannot be used for their computerized versions. Therefore, normative data searches are needed for computerized versions.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to determine the norm values of WCST-CV in a healthy sample.

METHODS

422 healthy adults aged 18-78 participated in this study. WCST-CVsub-scores are modeled by Regression Analysis based on Age and Education level to generate normative data. Among the 13 WCST scores, the regression models for WCST 2, WCST 3, WCST 4, WCST 10, and WCST 11 are significant. WCST 2, WCST 4, and WCST 11 scores are estimated with Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). However, WCST 3 and WCST 10 scores are estimated with Weighted Least Squares (WLS) due to the violation of the homoscedasticity assumption.

RESULTS

The regression results show that p-values calculated from error increase as age and education level increase.

CONCLUSION

As a result of our research, norm values between 18-78 years of age were produced using RA. It was determined that gender was not significant for any sub-score. Therefore, only age and education level from socio-demographic variables were included in the model.

Validation of the Norma Latina Neuropsychological Assessment Battery in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease in Mexico

To our knowledge, this is the first study reported in the literature that has validated the Norma Latina Battery in a population of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in Mexico. The objective of the study was to determine the discriminant validity of the Norma Latina Battery in a group of Mexican individuals with AD and a group of heathy controls (HC). The Norma Latina Battery was administered to 234 Mexican participants (117 HC and 117 individuals with AD). Results show that: (1) the Norma Latina Battery has high discriminative capacity between groups in all domains; (2) participants with AD presented worse scores in each of the cognitive domains compared to the HC and a greater number of low scores in each of the established thresholds or cut-off points; and finally, (3) the Norma Latina Battery had optimal sensitivity and specificity, especially when a set was observed ≥5 scores below the 10th percentile or ≥4 scores below the 5th percentile. In conclusion, it is recommended that both clinicians and researchers use this battery in the evaluation of Mexican people with AD to better understand the prognosis of the disease and its subsequent treatment.

Regression-based, demographically adjusted norms for Victoria Stroop Test, Digit Span, and Verbal Fluency for Sri Lankan adults

OBJECTIVE

Lack of test norms is a major limitation in neuropsychological assessment in many non-English-speaking countries. Our objective was to generate sex-, age-, and education-adjusted, regression-based norms for three pen-and-paper-based executive function/working memory tests, viz. Victoria Stroop Test (VST), Digit Span, and Verbal Fluency, for Sinhala-Speaking Sri Lankan adults.

METHOD

Six-hundred and six healthy, community-living, Sinhala-speaking adults (273 men) aged 19-83 years completed VST, Digit Span (forward and backward), and Phonemic (Sinhala phonemes "N," "P," and "S") and Category (animals and vegetables) Fluency tests. We conducted multiple linear regression analyses with sex, age, and years of education fitted as predictors to model the test outcome variables.

RESULTS

Younger age was associated with better performance in all tests except in Phonemic Fluency. Longer education was associated with better performance in all outcomes except VST errors and interference. Women had a significant but small advantage over men in VST Neutral and Color Word tests, and Phonemic Fluency. We report regression equations to predict norms for the test performance measures based on sex, age, and years of education; and the test variances accounted by these factors.

CONCLUSIONS

We propose demographically adjusted norms for VST, Digit Span, and Verbal Fluency for Sinhala-speaking Sri Lankans aged 19-83 years, and supplement the regression formulae with a calculator that produces predicted and standard scores. These norms would help in interpreting the results of clinical samples in the future, taking into account the variability introduced by sex, age, and education.