Cognitive assessment in the elderly.: Normative data of a Spanish population sample older than 70 years

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To define the parameters of normal cognitive performance in an easy to administer neuropsychological battery of a Spanish population sample of elderly over 70 years. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: We examined 527 home dwelling elderly from the longitudinal study Envejecer en Leganes, 71 to 99 years old (mean age [SD] 79 [6.2] years, 51.8% women, 38.7% without formal education), with an extensive clinical survey, a neurological exam and the following neuropsychological battery: Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire, Mini Mental State Examination, Benton Orientation Test, Bell Test, Verbal Fluency, Clock Drawing Test, Trail Making Test, Free and Cued Figures Recall, Logic Memory, Naming, incidental Recall, Delayed Recall, Similarities, IQCODE Questionnaire Of Jorm and Depression Questionnaire CES-D. Ill cases who rejected the assessment or had sensomotor limitations were excluded. 368 non demented subjects (according to DSM-IV criteria; 88.5% of the de 416 remaining cases) were selected to establish the normative data of every test. RESULTS: The analyzed subsample was representative of the total sample. The normative data for every neuropsychological test were obtained in the total group of non demented subjects and in the subgroups stratified by four age levels and two cultural levels. The mean values, standard deviations, range and percentiles for every test and subgroup are presented. CONCLUSIONS: The normative data obtained in this population sample for a neuropsychological battery easy to administer to poorly educated elderly can be useful to rigourously apply the criteria of dementia and mild cognitive impairment in future clinical and population studies.