Demographic Predictors of Cognitive Change in Ethnically Diverse Older Persons
Demographic Predictors of Cognitive Change in Ethnically Diverse Older Persons
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DOI：
10.1037/a0031645
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发表时间：
2013-09-01
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Mungas, Dan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Early, Dawnte R.;Widaman, Keith F.;Mungas, Dan
本研究的目的是评估人口统计学变量与认知变化的关系，并探讨认知测试的横截面人口统计学影响是否反映在认知衰退纵向轨迹的差异中。我们假设种族、民族、教育和考试管理语言与横截面状态有关，并且非裔美国人、西班牙裔和白种人的认知能力下降速度因受教育程度不同以及语言背景不同而有所不同。参与者是 404 名教育、种族和认知多样化的老年人，他们参加了一项正在进行的认知纵向研究。混合效应回归分析用于测量情景记忆、执行功能和语义记忆的基线状态和纵向变化。结果显示，种族和教育程度与基线分数密切相关，但在考虑了混杂变量后，最多与认知随时间的变化而微弱相关。有证据表明，受教育程度有限的讲西班牙语的西班牙裔参与者的情景记忆分数在最初评估中低估了他们的真实能力，这可能反映出他们对测试环境缺乏熟悉。这些结果与文献中的其他报告一致，表明人口统计变量对认知测试分数的横截面影响是由直接影响测试表现的生活经历的差异造成的，并不表明疾病对少数族裔和受教育程度有限的人的认知有更大的影响。
The purpose of this study was to evaluate how demographic variables relate to cognitive change and address whether cross-sectional demographic effects on cognitive tests are mirrored in differences in longitudinal trajectories of cognitive decline. We hypothesized that race and ethnicity, education, and language of test administration would relate to cross-sectional status and that the rate of cognitive decline would differ among African Americans, Hispanics, and Caucasians, across levels of educational attainment, and according to linguistic background. Participants were 404 educationally, ethnically, and cognitively diverse older adults enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal study of cognition. Mixed-effects regression analysis was used to measure baseline status and longitudinal change in episodic memory, executive functioning, and semantic memory. Results showed that ethnicity and education were strongly associated with baseline scores, but were, at most, weakly associated with change in cognition over time after accounting for confounding variables. There was evidence that the episodic-memory scores of Spanish-speaking Hispanic participants with limited education underestimated their true abilities in the initial evaluation, which may reflect lack of familiarity with the testing environment. These results-consistent with other reports in the literature-suggest that cross-sectional effects of demographic variables on cognitive-test scores result from differences in life experiences that directly influence test performance and do not indicate greater disease effects on cognition in minorities and those with limited education.