title: Effects of age, gender, and education on cognitive tests in a rural elderly community sample: norms from the Monongahela Valley Independent Elders Survey.
abstract: A random sample of 1,350 persons aged 65 years and older in a rural community underwent cognitive screening as part of a survey to establish a population-based registry of dementing disorders. The screening battery included the neuropsychological tests of the assessment protocol used in the National Institute on Aging multicenter Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD). This paper reports a large body of normative neuropsychological data from this sample with members of relatively low socioeconomic status. Age, sex, and educational level were found to have statistically significant effects on test scores. The implications of these findings for the establishment of screening cutoff scores are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Pa.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ganguli
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ratcliff
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Huff
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Belle
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kancel
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Seaberg
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Kuller
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D012016:Reference Values; D012424:Rural Population; D012737:Sex Factors