TY - JOUR
T1 - Category fluency test
T2 - Normative data for English- and Spanish-speaking elderly
AU - Acevedo, Amarilis
AU - Loewenstein, David A.
AU - Barker, Warren W.
AU - Harwood, Dylan G.
AU - Luis, Cheryl
AU - Bravo, Marina
AU - Hurwitz, Deborah A.
AU - Aguero, Hilda
AU - Greenfield, Lynda
AU - Duara, Ranjan
PY - 2000/12/19
Y1 - 2000/12/19
N2 - Category fluency tasks are an important component of neuropsychological assessment, especially when evaluating for dementia syndromes. The growth in the number of Spanish-speaking elderly in the United States has increased the need for appropriate neuropsychological measures and normative data for this population. This study provides norms for English and Spanish speakers, over the age of 50, on 3 frequently used measures of category fluency: animals, vegetables, and fruits. In addition, it examines the impact of age, education, gender, language, and depressed mood on total fluency scores and on scores on each of these fluency measures. A sample of 702 cognitively intact elderly, 424 English speakers, and 278 Spanish speakers, participated in the study. Normative data are provided stratified by language, age, education, and gender. Results evidence that regardless of the primary language of the examinee, age, education, and gender are the strongest predictors of total category fluency scores, with gender being the best predictor of performance after adjusting for age and education. English and Spanish speakers obtained similar scores on animal and fruit fluency, but English speakers generated more vegetable exemplars than Spanish speakers. Results also indicate that different fluency measures are affected by various factors to different degrees.
AB - Category fluency tasks are an important component of neuropsychological assessment, especially when evaluating for dementia syndromes. The growth in the number of Spanish-speaking elderly in the United States has increased the need for appropriate neuropsychological measures and normative data for this population. This study provides norms for English and Spanish speakers, over the age of 50, on 3 frequently used measures of category fluency: animals, vegetables, and fruits. In addition, it examines the impact of age, education, gender, language, and depressed mood on total fluency scores and on scores on each of these fluency measures. A sample of 702 cognitively intact elderly, 424 English speakers, and 278 Spanish speakers, participated in the study. Normative data are provided stratified by language, age, education, and gender. Results evidence that regardless of the primary language of the examinee, age, education, and gender are the strongest predictors of total category fluency scores, with gender being the best predictor of performance after adjusting for age and education. English and Spanish speakers obtained similar scores on animal and fruit fluency, but English speakers generated more vegetable exemplars than Spanish speakers. Results also indicate that different fluency measures are affected by various factors to different degrees.
KW - Category fluency test
KW - Neuropsychological tests
KW - Normative data
KW - Spanish speakers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0033663063&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0033663063&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1355617700677032
DO - 10.1017/S1355617700677032
M3 - Article
C2 - 11105466
AN - SCOPUS:0033663063
VL - 6
SP - 760
EP - 769
JO - Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
JF - Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
SN - 1355-6177
IS - 7
ER -