Decision-making in Cognitively Unimpaired Illiterate and Low-educated Older Women: Results on the Iowa Gambling Task.
OBJECTIVE
This study investigated the pattern of decision-making (DM) on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) in a sample of Portuguese speaking healthy older women in Brazil with limited education: illiterate, 1-2 years, and 3-4 years of schooling.


METHODS
Around 164 non-demented community-dwelling women participated in the study. Among them 60 were illiterate, 52 had 1-2 years of schooling and 52 had 3-4 years of schooling. Participants completed the instruments: Brief Cognitive Screening Battery (BCSB), Mini-Mental State Examination, Verbal Fluency Test (animal category), Clock Drawing Test, Geriatric Depression Scale, Geriatric Anxiety Inventory, Digit Span Forward and Backward, Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and IGT.


RESULTS
The three education groups were equivalent as to age, number of diseases, medications taken daily, depression, and anxiety symptoms. In the IGT the literate older adults made more advantageous choices than the illiterate and IGT performance improved linearly with higher levels of education. IGT performance correlated significantly with all cognitive test scores with the exception of the memorization of the pictures on the BCSB.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggested that education influences IGT performance, with worse scores among the illiterate. Results may be used by clinicians to interpret IGT performance among seniors with low literacy levels.
Cognitive Behavior Neurology Group (GNCC), Neurology Department, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.|Paulista Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology , São Paulo, Brazil.
Luciana
L
Cassimiro
Cognitive Behavior Neurology Group (GNCC), Neurology Department, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Daniel
D
Fuentes
Cognitive Behavior Neurology Group (GNCC), Neurology Department, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Ricardo
R
Nitrini
Cognitive Behavior Neurology Group (GNCC), Neurology Department, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil yassuda@usp.br.|School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, Gerontology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Mônica Sanches
MS
Yassuda
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001938:Brazil; D003071:Cognition; D003657:Decision Making; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011174:Portugal / Q000208:ethnology
Aging; Decision-making; Illiteracy; Iowa Gambling Task; Low education