Normative Data for Healthy French-Speaking Persons Aged 80 Years and Older for the DTLA Language Screening Test

Abstract

The Detection Test for Language Impairments in Adults and the Aged (DTLA) is a quick, sensitive, and standardized screening test designed to assess language disorders in adults and elderly people. The test was specifically developed to detect linguistic impairment associated with major neurocognitive disorders. In 2017, we established normative data on 545 healthy individuals between 50 and 80 years old from four French-speaking countries: Belgium, Canada (Quebec), France, and Switzerland.

Objective: The objective of the present study was to develop norms for the population older than 80 years of age for the DTLA.

Method: We extend the original normative data to include 149 healthy, community-dwelling, French-speaking adults aged 80 years old and older from the same countries.

Results: For the total score of the screening test, we calculated the 5th, 15th, 25th, and 50th percentiles for two education groups. The analyses allowed the identification of cutoff and alert scores based on education level.

Conclusions: With the present study, solid normative data for the DTLA derived from the performance of 694 healthy, community-dwelling adults, and elderly people are now available to clinicians and researchers.

Keywords: Dementia; Elderly/geriatrics/aging; Language and language disorders; Norms/normative studies.