Neuropsychological profiles between older adults with and without neurocognitive disorders

Abstract

To provide evidence about the neuropsychological profiles of older people with and without neurocognitive disorders (NCDs). A sample of 245 people older than 60 years (X: 69 and DS 6.3), with an education level of 7 years or less, participated. A neuropsychological assessment was carried out to evaluate cognitive functioning, and for the analysis of the data, several groups were formed according to the presence or absence of neurocognitive disorders. Analysis of differences of means (ANOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis H tests were used to compare the performance of the groups in neuropsychological tests. The main results showed that there is an association between groups due to impairment with age [t (245) = ,20; p =.00] and education level [t (245) = −,18; p =.01]. Phonological Verbal Fluency (VF) and Trail Making Test (TMT) A and B tests were shown to be influenced by education level. Age was a factor that was associated with Semantic VF, TMT A, and TMT B, being a better factor to explain the changes in the TMT than the education level. The differences between the groups in the performance in the neuropsychological tests were significant for all the tasks used. This study helped establish a neuropsychological profile of older adults in the area, as well as differentiating those with signs of NCD from those who were healthy, which will allow the design of health policies to address this problem.