Swedish normative data and longitudinal effects of aging for older adults: The Boston Naming Test 30-item and a short version of the Token Test

Naming ability and verbal comprehension are cognitive functions that may be affected both by normal aging and by disease. Neuropsychological testing is crucial to evaluate changes in language ability and reliable normative data for all ages are needed. We present clinically useful test norms, together with subsample analysis of longitudinal effects of aging, for two robust and well-known tests that evaluate naming ability and verbal comprehension where the present norms for older adults (aged 85 and older) are sparse or missing. Participants (n = 338) from a Swedish population-based study, the Elderly in Linköping Screening Assessment, were cognitively evaluated with a cognitive screening battery at the age of 85 years and followed to the age of 93 years. Normative data at age 85 years were calculated from a sample (n = 207) that was determined as cognitively healthy after application of rigorous exclusion criteria. Effects of normal aging were investigated by analyzing follow-up performance at age 90 and 93 years for the subsample of cognitively healthy that completed the entire study. The evaluated tests in this study are Swedish versions of the Boston Naming Test 30-item Odd Version (BNT-30) and a short form of the Token Test, Part V (TokV). Analyzes of effects of aging showed that performance decreased with age for BNT-30, but not for TokV. Higher education was associated with better performance in both tests and men performed better than women on the BNT-30. Results also showed naming ability to be more sensitive to aging than verbal comprehension.

Ageing in place - exploring the safety of the environment of Slovenian older adults

Objective

The importance of subjective and objective living environment was investigated.

Methods

A new questionnaire was developed, validated and distributed to community-dwelling adults in various Slovenian counties. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and t-tests in SPSS Statistics 24. Older adults (N = 358), 33% men and 67% women, mean age 74.3 years, participated in the cross-sectional study.

Results

Statistically significant differences (at 5% significance level) in subjective opinions of older adults regarding views on appropriate design of the living environment between the group with and without risk factors exist only for the statement that a thermostat to regulate room temperature should be placed in a visible and accessible location (p = 0.014).

Conclusion

The living environment has some risk factors, but they are not statistically significant between groups. The results may prompt occupational therapists to develop innovative strategies to facilitate occupational participation of users, increase participation in preventive services and obtain policy support.

Kogan's Attitude toward Old People scale revisited: Psychometric properties and recommendations

Population ageing is one of the present and future challenges in the European context. In addition to age-related changes, negative and judicious attitudes by society are also prevalent. Therefore, there is a need for reliable instruments to evaluate attitudes toward ageing. In this vein, the present research aims to provide a reliable version of the Kogan's Attitudes toward Older People scale adapted to the Spanish context. In a sample from the academic community (N = 163), we evaluated the reliability, the psychometric properties, and the internal consistency of a version of Kogan's scale translated into Spanish. The results showed a reliable short version of the scale with adequate psychometric properties and two factors: positive and negative. Moreover, the correlates with similar measures of attitude toward older people proved external validity measures by the short scale. The implications and contributions to the geriatric population are discussed.

Normative data for the oldest old: Trail Making Test A, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Victoria Stroop Test and Parallel Serial Mental Operations

Normative data for evaluating cognitive function in the oldest old, aged 85 years and above, are currently sparse. The normative values used in clinical practice are often derived from younger old persons, from small sample sizes or from broad age spans (e.g. >75 years) resulting in a risk of misjudgment in assessments of cognitive decline. This longitudinal study presents normative values for the Trail Making Test A (TMT-A), the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), the Victoria Stroop Test (VST) and the Parallel Serial Mental Operations (PaSMO) from cognitively intact Swedes aged 85 years and above. 207 participants, born in 1922, were tested at 85, 90 (n = 68) and 93 (n = 35) years of age with a cognitive screening test battery. The participants were originally recruited for participation in the Elderly in Linköping Screening Assessment. Normative values are presented as mean values and standard deviations, with and without adjustment for education. There were no clinically important differences between genders, but education had a significant effect on test results for the 85-year-olds. Age effects emerged in analyses of those participants who completed the entire study and were evident for TMT-A, SDMT, VST1 and PaSMO. When comparisons can be made, our results are in accordance with previous data for TMT-A, SDMT and VST, and we present new normative values for PaSMO.