Spanish Multicenter Normative Studies (NEURONORMA Project): norms for verbal fluency tests.
Lexical fluency tests are frequently used in clinical practice to assess language and executive function. As part of the Spanish multicenter normative studies (NEURONORMA project), we provide age- and education-adjusted norms for three semantic fluency tasks (animals, fruit and vegetables, and kitchen tools), three formal lexical tasks (words beginning with P, M, and R), and three excluded letter fluency tasks (excluded A, E, and S). The sample consists of 346 participants who are cognitively normal, community dwelling, and ranging in age from 50 to 94 years. Tables are provided to convert raw scores to age-adjusted scaled scores. These were further converted into education-adjusted scaled scores by applying regression-based adjustments. The current norms should provide clinically useful data for evaluating elderly Spanish people. These data may also be of considerable use for comparisons with other international normative studies. Finally, these norms should help improve the interpretation of verbal fluency tasks and allow for greater diagnostic accuracy.
Peña-Casanova
Jordi
J
Section of Behavioral Neurology and Dementias, Hospital del Mar, Institut Municipal d'Assistència Sanitària, Barcelona, Spain. jpcasanova@imas.imim.es
Quiñones-Ubeda
Sonia
S
Gramunt-Fombuena
Nina
N
Quintana-Aparicio
María
M
Aguilar
Miquel
M
Badenes
Dolors
D
Cerulla
Noemí
N
Molinuevo
José Luis
JL
Ruiz
Eva
E
Robles
Alfredo
A
Barquero
Maria Sagrario
MS
Antúnez
Carmen
C
Martínez-Parra
Carlos
C
Frank-García
Anna
A
Fernández
Manuel
M
Alfonso
Verónica
V
Sol
Josep M
JM
Blesa
Rafael
R
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012016:Reference Values; D012660:Semantics; D013030:Spain; D014705:Verbal Behavior