Normative data for eight verbal fluency measures in older Danish adults.

Verbal fluency tests are quickly administered, easy to use, and regularly used in the neuropsychological assessment. The aim of this study was to present regression-based reference data for eight different verbal fluency tests in a Danish sample (aged 60-96 years) to determine the influence of age, gender, and education on test-performances. The results showed that age and education were significantly associated with both categories, lexical and alternating fluency tests, and gender had a significant impact on two tests. All tests were significantly correlated, but there was a much stronger association between tests of the same type (lexical versus category) than between different types of tests indicating that various fluency tasks draw on different cognitive abilities. Specific patterns of impairment can be analyzed using these normative data and may be important in the assessment of dementia spectrum disorders.