Department of Neurology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands,
Department of Neurology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2019;47(4-6):345-354. doi: 10.1159/000501151. Epub 2019 Jul 18.
Neuropsychological tests are influenced by culture, language, level of education, and literacy, but there are few cognitive tests of which the applicability in ethnic minority populations has been studied.
The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Visual Association Test (VAT), a test of visual association memory, in a non-Western, low-educated memory clinic population. Additionally, a modified version of the VAT using colored photographs instead of line drawings was studied (mVAT).
Both the original VAT and the mVAT were administered to non-Western immigrants (n = 73) from 2 multicultural memory clinics in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and a control sample of non-demented Turkish elderly (n = 14) with low education levels (32 and 29% illiterate, respectively).
Both the VAT and the mVAT were able to discriminate persons with and without dementia (area under the curve: VAT, 0.77-0.88; mVAT, 0.85-0.95). The mVAT had more homogeneous item difficulty levels than the VAT. Administration of parallel versions of the VAT and the mVAT within the same person revealed higher scores on the mVAT (Z = -3.35, p = 0.001).
The mVAT is a reliable and valid measure of memory in non-Western immigrants. Clinicians and researchers should be aware that the memory performance of immigrants may be systematically underestimated when using tests with black-and-white line drawings, such as the original VAT.
神经心理学测试受文化、语言、教育水平和读写能力的影响，但对于已经在少数民族群体中进行了适用性研究的认知测试却很少。
本研究旨在评估视觉联想测试（VAT）的可靠性和有效性，VAT 是一种视觉联想记忆测试，适用于非西方、受教育程度较低的记忆诊所人群。此外，还研究了使用彩色照片而不是线条图的 VAT 的修改版本（mVAT）。
荷兰鹿特丹的 2 家多文化记忆诊所的非西方移民（n=73）以及受教育程度较低的非痴呆土耳其老年人（n=14）均接受了原始 VAT 和 mVAT 的测试。
VAT 和 mVAT 均能够区分痴呆症患者和非痴呆症患者（曲线下面积：VAT，0.77-0.88；mVAT，0.85-0.95）。mVAT 的项目难度水平比 VAT 更均匀。在同一个人身上同时进行 VAT 和 mVAT 的平行版本的测试表明，mVAT 的得分更高（Z=-3.35，p=0.001）。
mVAT 是一种可靠且有效的非西方移民记忆测试方法。临床医生和研究人员应该意识到，当使用黑白线条图等原始 VAT 进行测试时，移民的记忆表现可能会被系统地低估。
