Phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks: normative data for elderly Brazilians/Fluencia verbal fonemica e semantica: dados normativos de idosos brasileiros

• Published in: Psicologia, reflexão e crítica reflexão e crítica, 2015-04, Vol.28 (2), p.350
• Main Authors: Esteves, Cristiane Silva, Oliveira, Camila Rosa, Moret-Tatay, Carmen, Navarro-Pardo, Esperanza, De Carli, Geraldo Atilio, Silva, Irenio Gomes, Irigaray, Tatiana Qua, Argimon, Irani Iracema de Lima
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0102-7972
• DOI: 10.1590/1678-7153.201528215

This study aims to investigate the influence of sociodemographic characteristics on the performance of older people on two tasks of verbal fluency and provide normative data for a Brazilian population of healthy elderly individuals with different educational levels. The initial sample included 521 individuals aged from 60 years, participating in the Program Family Health Strategy. Participants who had scores suggestive of cognitive decline on the Mini-Mental State Examination, depressive symptoms in Geriatric Depression Scale and self-reported neurological or psychiatric disorders were excluded. The final sample consisted of 218 participants in phonemic verbal fluency task (letters F, A and S) and 265 participants for semantic verbal fluency task (animals). The performance in both tests was associated with age and education, but not with sex. Still, the education variable was shown to have a greater impact on scores in phonemic and semantic tests than age in both forms of evocation. The results of this study suggest the importance of providing normative data for elderly Brazilians appropriate to age and education on verbal fluency tasks. Keywords: Verbal fluency, normative data, elderly. Este estudo buscou investigar a influencia de caracteristicas sociodemograficas no desempenho de idosos em duas tarefas de fluencia verbal, alem de fornecer dados normativos de referencia nessas tarefas, conforme niveis de educacao, para a populacao brasileira de idosos saudaveis. A amostra inicial incluiu 521 idosos com idade a partir 60 anos, participantes do Programa Estrategia Saude na Familia. Foram excluidos os participantes que tinham pontuacoes sugestivas de declinio cognitivo no Mini Exame do Estado Mental, de sintomas depressivos na Escala de Depressao Geriatrica e com autorrelato de doencas neurologicas ou de disturbios psiquiatricos. A amostra final foi composta por 218 participantes que responderam a tarefa de fluencia verbal fonemica (letras F, A e S) e 265 que responderam a tarefa semantica (animais). O desempenho em ambas as tarefas foi associado a idade e aos anos de ensino formal, mas nao ao sexo. Ainda, a variavel escolaridade mostrou ter um impacto maior no desempenho de fluencia verbal do que a idade em ambas as modalidades de evocacao. Os resultados desse estudo sugerem a importancia de oferecer dados normativos de idosos brasileiros, adequados a idade e a escolaridade, em tarefas de fluencia verbal. Palavras-chave: Fluencia verbal, dados normativos,