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Normative data for healthy elderly on the phonemic verbal fluency task – FAS

Generally, alcohol consumption declines with age and the proportion of non-drinkers increases. The reasons for this decline in consumption are presumably connected to changes in life circumstances and attitudes and, in the later middle aged and older, growing ill health. There is evidence that today’s population of elderly people may be relatively heavier drinkers than previous generations. This could be the result of an effect whereby a generation which has had its formative years at a time of high social availability and acceptability of alcohol may be more likely to retain the habit of drinking. Higher levels of disposable income in retirement could also be a factor. Certainly,. | Dementia Neuropsychologia 2009 March 3 1 55-60 Original Article Normative data for healthy elderly on the phonemic verbal fluency task - FAS Thais Helena Machado1 Helenice Charchat Fichman2 4 Etelvina Lucas Santos1 Viviane Amaral Carvalho1 Patricia Paes Fialho1 Anne Marise Koenig1 Conceiẹão Santos Fernandes3 Roberto Alves Lourenẹo5 Emylucy Martins de Paiva Parabola Paulo Caramelli1 Abstract - Phonemic verbal fluency tests assess the production of words beginning with specific letters. Of these letters the most frequently used are F A and S. It is a sensitive test for assessing frontal lobe functions. Objective To provide normative data for the elderly Brazilian population on the FAS test and to investigate the effects of age and schooling on test performance. Methods The individuals were divided into three age groups 60-69 70-79 and 80 years and into four groups according to education 1-3 4-7 8-11 and 12 years . All subjects were assessed by the Mini Mental State Examination and the FAS. Data were analyzed with Student s t test ANOVA simple linear regression and Spearman s correlation. Results We evaluated 345 cognitively healthy volunteers 66.66 being female aged 60 to 93 years with an educational level ranging from one to 24 years. The average number of items SD for the whole sample was 28.28 11.53. No significant effect of gender was observed p 0.5 . Performance on the MMSE and education exerted a direct influence on FAS scores p 0.001 with education being the most significant factor. A positive correlation was found between FAS and the MMSE r 0.404 p 0.001 . Conclusion The performance of Brazilian elderly on the phonemic verbal fluency tests-FAS is significantly influenced by education where individuals with higher educational level present better performance than those with fewer years of schooling. Age and gender did not prove significant with the FAS. Key words healthy elderly verbal fluency educational status normative data. Dados normativos de idosos .