The Neuropsychological Performance of Nondemented Puerto Rican Nonagenarians

Background/Aims: While the oldest old are the fastest growing segment of the US population, normative neuropsychological data for nondemented oldest old Spanish speakers are nonexistent. This study sought to evaluate the neuropsychological performance of nondemented nonagenarians residing in Puerto Rico and to compare their results with those of a similar English-speaking sample from New York. Methods: We studied 81 subjects who had a complete CERAD neuropsychological assessment in Spanish. We used multiple regression analysis to predict performance on the CERAD battery and ANCOVA to compare the Puerto Rico and New York samples. Results: In 10 out of the 13 neuropsychological tests administered, education was a significant predictor of performance. There were significant differences between the Puerto Rico and New York groups only in the Trail Making Tests. Conclusions: In this Puerto Rican sample, education was the strongest predictor of neuropsychological performance, which is consistent with previous studies. When education level is properly accounted for, the performance of Puerto Rican nonagenarians in the CERAD battery does not differ from the performance of US English-speaking nonagenarians. Copyright (c) 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel