CERAD-NP battery: Age-, gender- and education-specific reference values for selected subtests. Results of the German Study on Ageing, Cognition and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe)

• Published in: Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie 2009-10, Vol.42 (5), p.372-384
• Main Authors: Luck, T, Riedel-Heller, S G, Wiese, B, Stein, J, Weyerer, S, Werle, J, Kaduszkiewicz, H, Wagner, M, Mösch, E, Zimmermann, T, Maier, W, Bickel, H, van den Bussche, H, Jessen, F, Fuchs, A, Pentzek, M
• Format: Article
• Language: ger
• Subjects: Age Distribution; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Alzheimer Disease - epidemiology; Alzheimer Disease - psychology; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Cognition Disorders - epidemiology; Cognition Disorders - psychology; Comorbidity; Educational Status; Female; Germany - epidemiology; Humans; Incidence; Male; Neuropsychological Tests - standards; Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data; Reference Values; Risk Assessment - standards; Risk Factors; Sex Distribution
• ISSN: 1435-1269
• DOI: 10.1007/s00391-009-0031-y

The CERAD-NP battery represents well-established tests for the neuropsychological diagnosis of characteristic cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's dementia. However, the use of neuropsychological tests requires reliable standard values for the population under consideration, taking sociodemographic characteristics like age, education and gender into account. This report presents age-, education- and gender-specific reference values for the subtests verbal fluency, word list memory, word list recall and word list recognition as well as the word list savings score of the CERAD-NP battery. The study sample consists of 2891 general practitioners' patients from Germany aged 75 years and older. The study participants had a mean age of 80.2 years (SD=3.6); thus, this report provides reliable reference values for the neuropsychological diagnosis of dementia in older age groups.