Cognitive test performance in a community-based nondemented elderly sample in rural India: the Indo-U.S. Cross-National Dementia Epidemiology Study.
Interpretation of cognitive test performance among individuals from a given population requires an understanding of cognitive norms in that population. Little is known about normative test performance among elderly illiterate non-English-speaking individuals. An age-stratified random sample of men and women, aged 55 years and older, was drawn from a community-based population in the rural area of Ballabgarh in northern India. These Hindi-speaking individuals had little or no education and were largely illiterate. A battery of neuropsychological tests, specially adapted from the CERAD neuropsychological battery, which was administered to this sample, is described. Subjects also underwent a protocol diagnostic examination for dementia. Norms for test performance of 374 nondemented subjects on these tests are reported across the sample and also by age, gender, and literacy.
Ganguli
M
M
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Chandra
V
V
Gilby
J E
JE
Ratcliff
G
G
Sharma
S D
SD
Pandav
R
R
Seaberg
E C
EC
Belle
S
S
D000368:Aged; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003906:Developing Countries; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008609:Mental Status Schedule / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology