title: Normative data on a measure of estimated premorbid abilities as part of a dementia evaluation.
abstract: Estimating a person's premorbid cognitive abilities is common practice as part of a dementia assessment. Vocabulary has traditionally served as a "hold" measure because of its relative resilience to neurologic impairment and aging and its high correlation with overall intellectual functioning. Normative data for the Vocabulary subtest of the Shipley Institute of Living Scale (SILS) only go to age 64. This study describes the relations among age, gender, education, and SILS Vocabulary subtest performance. Normative data and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised equivalent Full-Scale IQ scores are reported for SILS Vocabulary subtest performance for a sample of 383 nonimpaired community-dwelling older adults, ranging in age from 60 to 94. Results expand the utility of the Vocabulary subtest of the SILS in providing an estimated level of premorbid cognitive ability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Aging and Mental Health, University of South Florida, Tampa 33612, USA. yuspeh@hal.fmhi.usf.edu
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Yuspeh
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Vanderploeg
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Kershaw