Reading level attenuates differences in neuropsychological test performance between African American and White elders

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Gerontology

Background:

• Racial disparities exist in cognitive test scores among elders.
• Years of education is a common matching variable, but may not reflect educational quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if educational quality, measured by reading recognition, explains cognitive score differences between African American and White elders.
• To assess the impact of adjusting for educational quality on race-based cognitive performance disparities.

Main Methods:

• Administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery to nondemented African American and White elders.
• Used the Wide Range Achievement Test-Version 3 (WRAT-3) Reading Recognition subtest as a proxy for educational quality.
• Employed Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) to compare cognitive scores between racial groups, with and without adjustment for WRAT-3 scores.

Main Results:

• African American elders scored lower than White elders on multiple cognitive tests despite matching on years of education.
• Adjusting for WRAT-3 reading scores substantially reduced or eliminated significant racial differences across most cognitive measures.
• Category fluency and a drawing measure remained significant, suggesting other factors may influence these specific skills.

Conclusions:

• Years of education is an insufficient measure of educational experience in diverse elder populations.
• Incorporating measures of educational quality, like reading ability, can refine neuropsychological assessments and reduce spurious racial group differences.
• Findings highlight the importance of considering educational quality in research on cognitive aging and disparities.