 |
| Research article summary (published 27 Feb 2002): |
Reading level attenuates differences in neuropsychological test performance between African American and White elders.
Full Abstract
The current study sought to determine if discrepancies in quality of education could explain differences in cognitive test scores between African American and White elders matched on years of education. A comprehensive neuropsychological battery was administered to a sample of African American and non-Hispanic White participants in an epidemiological study of normal aging and dementia in the Northern Manhattan community. All participants were diagnosed as nondemented by a neurologist, and had no history of Parkinson's disease, stroke, mental illness, or head injury. The Reading Recognition subtest from the Wide Range Achievement Test-Version 3 was used as an estimate of quality of education. A MANOVA revealed that African American elders obtained significantly lower scores than Whites on measures of word list learning and memory, figure memory, abstract reasoning, fluency, and visuospatial skill even though the groups were matched on years of education. However, after adjusting the scores for WRAT-3 reading score, the overall effect of race was greatly reduced and racial differences on all tests (except category fluency and a drawing measure) became nonsignificant. These findings suggest that years of education is an inadequate measure of the educational experience among multicultural elders, and that adjusting for quality of education may improve the specificity of certain neuropsychological measures.
Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills
Author information
Author/s: Manly, Jennifer J (JJ); Jacobs, Diane M (DM); Touradji, Pegah (P); Small, Scott A (SA); Stern, Yaakov (Y);
Affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience Division, Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA. jjm71(-atsign-)columbia.edu
Grants: AG07232 (Agency:United States NIA) ; AG16206 (Agency:United States NIA)
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Journal: Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS (J Int Neuropsychol Soc), published in England. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Mar; vol 8 (issue 3) : pp 341-8
Dates: Created 2002/04/09; Completed 2002/05/28; Revised 2007/11/14;
PMID: 11939693, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
Comments and Corrections
ErratumIn: J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2002 May;8(4):605.
External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):
Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.
This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.
MeSH headings (categories)
This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.
|
|
Related articles
This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.
See a large map of 100+ related articles.