Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-fqc5m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T05:35:09.228Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Performance of elderly African American and White community residents on the CERAD Neuropsychological Battery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2001

GERDA G. FILLENBAUM
Affiliation:
Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University, Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
ALBERT HEYMAN
Affiliation:
Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
MARC S. HUBER
Affiliation:
Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University, Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
MARY GANGULI
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
FREDERICK W. UNVERZAGT
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana

Abstract

The CERAD Neuropsychological Battery, includes 7 measures: Verbal Fluency; Modified Boston Naming; Mini-Mental State; Word List Learning, Recall and Recognition; Constructional Praxis. It was originally developed to evaluate patients with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, but is increasingly used in epidemiological studies of the incidence and prevalence of dementia in the elderly. The current study reports norms for African American and White representative community residents 71 years of age and older in North Carolina, and compares performance with that of African Americans in Indianapolis and with Whites in the Monongahela Valley, Pennsylvania. For all 3 studies, increased education and younger age was related to better performance on each of the 7 measures. Sex differences, when present, tended to favor women. Although on average African Americans performed more poorly than Whites, with demographic characteristics controlled, no significant racial differences were found in the North Carolina sample. Both African American and White participants in North Carolina performed more poorly than their racial counterparts in the other 2 studies, possibly because of selection-induced differences in health and educational status. Nevertheless, the use of an identical evaluation battery, such as the CERAD neuropsychologic instrument, facilitates comparisons not otherwise possible, and should be encouraged. (JINS, 2001, 7, 502–509.)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2001 The International Neuropsychological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)