Anger W K, Sizemore O J, Grossmann S J, Glasser J A, Letz R, Bowler R
Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, Oregon 97201, USA.
Environ Res. 1997;73(1-2):18-41. doi: 10.1006/enrs.1997.3707.
Behavioral tests are used in work site and community research to detect and characterize the effects of neurotoxic chemical exposures in human populations, but the influence of subject variables on test performance has not been well studied in normal adult populations. This research sought to evaluate the impact of two variables, education and cultural group, on 18 widely used tests of neurotoxic insult. Behavioral tests from the two consensus neurotoxicity test batteries (established by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) were administered to 715 people aged 26-45 with 0-18 years of education, drawn from European descent United States majority, American Indian, African American, and Latin American populations. Education, cultural group, age, and gender affected the outcome of behavioral tests as revealed by ANOVA, MANOVA, and multiple regression techniques. Education, followed by cultural group, accounted for the most variance in the tests studied. More importantly, years of education and cultural group had 13-25% shared variance on the cognitive tests and highly significant interactions derived from ANOVA tests. This suggests that these factors should be controlled in the design of a study rather than in the statistical analysis. Because these factors can mimic a neurotoxic insult, failure to adequately control and analyze them could lead to inaccurate conclusions about the association between poor performance and neurotoxic insult.
行为测试用于工作场所和社区研究，以检测和描述神经毒性化学物质暴露对人群的影响，但在正常成年人群中，受试者变量对测试表现的影响尚未得到充分研究。本研究旨在评估教育程度和文化群体这两个变量对18种广泛使用的神经毒性损伤测试的影响。对来自欧洲裔美国多数群体、美国印第安人、非裔美国人和拉丁美洲人群的715名年龄在26至45岁、受教育年限为0至18年的人进行了两项共识神经毒性测试电池（由世界卫生组织和美国有毒物质和疾病登记局制定）中的行为测试。方差分析、多变量方差分析和多元回归技术表明，教育程度、文化群体、年龄和性别会影响行为测试的结果。在所研究的测试中，教育程度（其次是文化群体）占方差的比例最大。更重要的是，受教育年限和文化群体在认知测试中具有13%至25%的共同方差，并且方差分析测试得出了高度显著的交互作用。这表明这些因素应在研究设计中加以控制，而不是在统计分析中。由于这些因素可能会模拟神经毒性损伤，未能充分控制和分析它们可能会导致关于表现不佳与神经毒性损伤之间关联的结论不准确。
