Mayo's older Americans normative studies: category fluency norms

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Gerontology
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Assessing cognitive function in older adults is crucial for identifying neurological changes.
• Normative data are essential for interpreting individual performance on cognitive tests.
• Previous normative data may not adequately account for age and education effects in older populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present age-adjusted normative data for a category fluency measure in adults aged 55 and older.
• To provide education-adjusted normative data for the same category fluency measure.
• To facilitate accurate interpretation and comparison of category fluency performance within the Mayo's Older Americans Normative Studies (MOANS) framework.

Main Methods:

• Data collected as part of Mayo's Older Americans Normative Studies (MOANS).
• Analysis focused on a common measure of category fluency.
• Age-adjustment and education-adjustment applied to normative data.

Main Results:

• Normative data for category fluency are provided for individuals over 55 years.
• Data are adjusted for age and further refined with education adjustments.
• The normative data allow for characterizing performance on this specific measure.

Conclusions:

• The presented normative data are valuable for characterizing category fluency performance in older adults.
• These data enhance the accuracy of comparing category fluency scores with other MOANS measures, including letter fluency.
• Understanding the limitations and unique features of MOANS normative data is important for interpretation.