title: Influence of educational status on executive function and functional balance in individuals with Parkinson disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated whether educational status influenced how people with Parkinson disease (PD) performed on Parts A, B, and DELTA of the Trail Making Test (TMT) and on the Berg Balance Scale (BBS).
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Recent studies have shown that educational status may influence cognitive and motor test performance.
  
  
  METHODS
  We gave the TMT and the BBS to assess executive function and functional balance in 28 people with PD (Hoehn and Yahr score between 2 and 3) and 30 healthy elderly people. Participants reported their number of years of formal education. We divided each group of participants by educational status: low (4 to 10 years of education) or high (≥11 years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In both the PD (P=0.018) and control (P=0.003) groups, participants with low educational status performed worse on the TMT Part B than did those with high educational status. Within the PD group, the less-educated participants scored worse on the BBS than did the more educated (P<0.001); this difference was not significant between the more- and less-educated controls (P=0.976).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Whether or not they had PD, less-educated people performed worse than more-educated people on the TMT Part B. Educational status affected executive function, but PD status did not. Among individuals with PD, educational status influenced functional balance.
authors.affiliation: Movement Disorders Clinic, Department of Neurology, Hospital das Clínicas, Brazil. souzaco@ig.com.br
authors.forename: Carolina de Oliveira
authors.initials: Cde O
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Mariana Callil
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Voos
authors.forename: Débora Valente
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Francato
authors.forename: Hsin Fen
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Chien
authors.forename: Egberto Reis
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Barbosa
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004522:Educational Status; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*