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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| The relationship between literacy and cognition in well-educated elders | | Author(s) | Deborah E Barnes, Ira B Tager, William A Satariano |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, vol 59A, no 4, April 2004 |
| Pages | pp 390-395 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Educated persons ; Reading ; Cognitive processes ; Evaluation ; Correlation ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Literacy is often used to estimate premorbid intelligence in people with dementia. However, little is known about the relationship between literacy and specific cognitive domains. Participants were 664 community-living people aged 65+ (mean age 76, 50% women, 97% white, 92% with 12 or more years of education) in a community-based study of health and function in Sonoma, California. Literacy was measured using the North American Adult Reading Test which evaluates the ability to pronounce words with irregular spellings (such as indict). Cognitive function was assessed using a neuropsychological test battery including the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and measures of attention and executive function (Trails B, Stroop, Digit Symbol), verbal learning and memory (California Verbal Learning Test) and verbal fluency (letter "s", animals). A strong, linear association was observed between literacy and all cognitive measures. Results were similar after adjustment for age, sex, education, and health-related covariates, and were consistent in subgroups of the study population (e.g. English vs other native languages). Education was not associated with most cognitive measures after adjustment for literacy. Literacy is strongly associated with cognitive function across all cognitive domains in well-educated older white people. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040705512 A |
| Classmark | VHA: HKM: DA: 4C: 49: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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