title: Derived trail making test indices in a sample of heroin abusers: demographic effects.
abstract: Derived indices on the Trail Making test (TMT), a test often used for screening cognitive impairment, are examined in a sample of heroin abusers in drug abuse treatment programs. A mixed race sample of 1548 subjects was drawn from electronic files of data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS). The DATOS was a naturalistic, prospective cohort study that collected data from 1991-1993 in 96 programs in 11 cities in the United States. Data were analyzed to determine the effects of demographic variables on derived indices created by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing parts A and B of the TMT in this large treatment sample of heroin abusers. The variables of sex, age, ethnicity, and education were strongly statistically significant for the total (A + B) and interaction (A x B/100) derived indices of the TMT. Similarly, the difference score (B - A) was significant for race/ethnicity and education, but the ratio score (B/A) was not significant for any demographic variable.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014145:Trail Making Test