COGNITIVE TEST PERFORMANCE OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ELDERS

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Description: (adapted from investigator's abstract): This is new investigator award. In the present study, a sample of 500 African American older persons will be recruited from an ongoing epidemiologic study of aging and dementia in north Manhattan. The subjects will receive a neuropsychological test battery, as well as measures of educational experience, literacy and acculturation. Specific aims are to investigate the potential influence of demographic features such as age and gender, education and setting of educational experience, literacy, and acculturation level on neuropsychological test performance. Investigators will also study whether literacy level and education variables can account for differences in neuropsychological test score between cognitively intact, age and education matched, black and white Americans. The investigators will develop adjustments for neuropsychological test scores (i.e., norms) for African American elders. They will then determine if the adjustments are associated with everyday function measures and whether performance on appropriately adjusted neuropsychological tests are predictive of change in functioning over time. Their ultimate goal is to improve the diagnostic utility of neuropsychological measures administered to older African Americans.