TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of health status on word finding in aging
AU - Albert, Martin L.
AU - Spiro, Avron
AU - Sayers, Keely J.
AU - Cohen, Jason A.
AU - Brady, Christopher B.
AU - Goral, Mira
AU - Obler, Loraine K.
PY - 2009/12
Y1 - 2009/12
N2 - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate effects of health status on word-finding difficulty in aging, adjusting for the known contributors of education, sex, and ethnicity. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Community. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred eighty-four adults aged 55 to 85 (48.6% female) participating in an ongoing longitudinal study of language in aging. MEASUREMENTS: Medical, neurological, and laboratory evaluations to determine health status and presence or absence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Lexical retrieval evaluated with the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and Action Naming Test. RESULTS: Unadjusted regression models showed that presence of diabetes mellitus was not related to naming. Presence of hypertension was associated with significantly lower accuracy on both tasks (P<.02). Adjustment for demographics attenuated the effect of hypertension (P<.08). For the BNT, a variable combining presence, treatment, and control of hypertension was marginally significant (P<.10), with subjects with uncontrolled hypertension being least accurate (91.4%). Previously observed findings regarding the effects of age, education, sex, and ethnicity were confirmed. CONCLUSION: In this sample of older adults, hypertension contributed to the word-finding difficulty of normal aging, but diabetes mellitus did not.
AB - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate effects of health status on word-finding difficulty in aging, adjusting for the known contributors of education, sex, and ethnicity. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Community. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred eighty-four adults aged 55 to 85 (48.6% female) participating in an ongoing longitudinal study of language in aging. MEASUREMENTS: Medical, neurological, and laboratory evaluations to determine health status and presence or absence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Lexical retrieval evaluated with the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and Action Naming Test. RESULTS: Unadjusted regression models showed that presence of diabetes mellitus was not related to naming. Presence of hypertension was associated with significantly lower accuracy on both tasks (P<.02). Adjustment for demographics attenuated the effect of hypertension (P<.08). For the BNT, a variable combining presence, treatment, and control of hypertension was marginally significant (P<.10), with subjects with uncontrolled hypertension being least accurate (91.4%). Previously observed findings regarding the effects of age, education, sex, and ethnicity were confirmed. CONCLUSION: In this sample of older adults, hypertension contributed to the word-finding difficulty of normal aging, but diabetes mellitus did not.
KW - Aging
KW - Diabetes mellitus
KW - Hypertension
KW - Language
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=71549130439&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=71549130439&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2009.02559.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2009.02559.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 20121990
AN - SCOPUS:71549130439
SN - 0002-8614
VL - 57
SP - 2300
EP - 2305
JO - Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
JF - Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
IS - 12
ER -
