TY - JOUR
T1 - Acculturation, reading level, and neuropsychological test performance among African American elders
AU - Manly, Jennifer J.
AU - Byrd, Desiree A.
AU - Touradji, Pegah
AU - Stern, Yaakov
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by federal grants AG16206 (J. Manly), AG07232 (R. Mayeux), the Alzheimer’s Association, and the New York City Speakers Fund for Biomedical Research–Toward the Science of Patient Care. The authors thank Rosann Costa for her help with data management and Judes Fleuri-mont, Maria Gonzalez-Diaz, Cherita McDowell, Danurys Sanchez, Stacey Tuchin, and Wizdom Powell for their assistance with scheduling and interviewing participants.
PY - 2004
Y1 - 2004
N2 - The independent effects of cultural and educational experience on neuropsychological test performance were examined among 503 nondemented African Americans ages 65 and older Measures of cultural experience (acculturation) and quality of education (reading level) were administered. Reading level was the most influential predictor of cognitive test performance, even after accounting for age, sex, years of education, and acculturation level. Age had small but significant unique effects on most measures, especially word list learning. Years of education had independent effects on measures of verbal abstraction, fluency, and figure matching. More acculturated African Americans obtained higher scores on most measures; however, after accounting for age, years of education, sex, and reading level, the effect of acculturation was diminished. The results suggest that quality of education and cultural experience influence how older African Americans approach neuropsychological tasks; therefore, adjustment for these variables may improve specificity of neuropsychological measures.
AB - The independent effects of cultural and educational experience on neuropsychological test performance were examined among 503 nondemented African Americans ages 65 and older Measures of cultural experience (acculturation) and quality of education (reading level) were administered. Reading level was the most influential predictor of cognitive test performance, even after accounting for age, sex, years of education, and acculturation level. Age had small but significant unique effects on most measures, especially word list learning. Years of education had independent effects on measures of verbal abstraction, fluency, and figure matching. More acculturated African Americans obtained higher scores on most measures; however, after accounting for age, years of education, sex, and reading level, the effect of acculturation was diminished. The results suggest that quality of education and cultural experience influence how older African Americans approach neuropsychological tasks; therefore, adjustment for these variables may improve specificity of neuropsychological measures.
KW - Acculturation
KW - Quality of education
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U2 - 10.1207/s15324826an1101_5
DO - 10.1207/s15324826an1101_5
M3 - Article
C2 - 15471745
AN - SCOPUS:4644244182
VL - 11
SP - 37
EP - 46
JO - Applied neuropsychology. Adult
JF - Applied neuropsychology. Adult
SN - 0908-4282
IS - 1
ER -