Normative Data for Verbal Fluency, Trail Making, and Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Tests on Monolingual Spanish-Speaking Older Adults

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to generate updated normative data for commonly used tests in neuropsychological assessment applied to older monolingual Spanish-speaking adults: Verbal fluency tests, the Trail Making Test (TMT), and the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure test (ROCF).

Method: To obtain normative data, 382 cognitively healthy 60- to 90-year-old Spanish monolingual participants from the Autonomous Community of Madrid (Spain) with 0-22 years education were assessed using an overlapping interval strategy that involved cell and midpoint techniques, and that assessed the influence of age, education, and sex.

Results: Age and education were associated with the scores in the verbal fluency tests, TMT, and ROCF, whereas sex only significantly affected the TMT results. Age-adjusted scaled scores (SSA) based on percentile ranks were also converted into age-education scaled scores (SSAE) using a linear regression model. In addition, tables with the relevant adjustments for sex are provided for TMT-A and TMT-B.

Conclusions: Thus, this study provides updated, uniform normative data for widely used neuropsychological tests on older Spanish adults. The normative procedure followed helps to make consistent comparisons when using these neuropsychological tests, which will improve the interpretation of the data obtained when these tools are employed, reducing the risk of misdiagnosing cognitive impairment in older adults.

Keywords: Executive function; Normative data; Older adults; Rey–Osterrieth complex figure test; Trail Making test; Verbal fluency tests.