A battery of tests for assessing cognitive function in older Latino persons

With the proportion of older Latinos in the United States rapidly growing, dementia is expected to be an increasing public health problem in this segment of the population. Yet relatively few cognitive test batteries have been developed for evaluating older Spanish-speaking persons. We selected a battery of cognitive tests used in cognitive aging studies of English speakers, adapted it for Spanish speakers, and administered it to 66 older Latinos (mean age=71.1, SD=8.1). The results of a factor analysis supported grouping the tests into the same 5 functional domains identified for English speakers. Composite measures of performance in each domain were positively related to education and, with some exceptions, inversely related to age. The results suggest that this battery may be useful in epidemiologic research on cognition in older Latinos.