Goldstein Felicia C, Hanfelt John J, James Taylor A, Lah James J, Loring David W
Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, USA.
J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2024 Dec;30(10):998-1002. doi: 10.1017/S135561772400064X. Epub 2024 Dec 3.
To evaluate the impact of receptive vocabulary versus years of education on neuropsychological performance of Black and White older adults.
A community-based prospectively enrolled cohort ( = 1,007; 130 Black, 877 White) in the Emory Healthy Brain Study were administered the NIH Toolbox Picture Vocabulary Test and neuropsychological measures. Group differences were evaluated with age, sex, and education or age, sex, and Toolbox Vocabulary scores as covariates to determine whether performance differences between Black versus White participants were attenuated or eliminated.
With vocabulary as a covariate, the main effect of race was no longer significant for the MoCA, Phonemic Fluency, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, and Rey Complex Figure Test immediate and delayed recall. Although still significantly different between groups, the effect sizes for Animal Fluency, Trails B-A, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, and Rey Copy were attenuated, with the greatest reductions occurring for the Multilingual Naming Test and Judgment of Line Orientation.
Findings support the value of using receptive vocabulary as a proxy for premorbid ability level when comparing the cognitive performance of Black and White older adults. The results extend investigations using measures of single word reading to encompass measures assessing word meaning.
评估接受性词汇量与受教育年限对黑人和白人老年人神经心理表现的影响。
在埃默里健康大脑研究中，对一个基于社区的前瞻性入组队列（n = 1,007；130名黑人，877名白人）进行了美国国立卫生研究院工具箱图片词汇测试和神经心理测量。以年龄、性别和教育程度或年龄、性别和工具箱词汇分数作为协变量评估组间差异，以确定黑人和白人参与者之间的表现差异是否减弱或消除。
以词汇量作为协变量时，对于蒙特利尔认知评估量表（MoCA）、语音流畅性测试、雷伊听觉词语学习测验和雷伊复杂图形测验的即时和延迟回忆，种族的主效应不再显著。虽然组间差异仍然显著，但动物流畅性测试、连线测验B-A、符号数字模式测验和雷伊临摹测验的效应量有所减弱，多语言命名测试和直线方向判断的效应量减少最为明显。
研究结果支持在比较黑人和白人老年人的认知表现时，使用接受性词汇量作为病前能力水平替代指标的价值。研究结果将使用单字阅读测量的调查扩展到包括评估词义的测量。
