English summary: NORMS FOR USE OF THE CERAD TEST BATTERY IN FINLAND

Background

The study aimed to explore the effects of age, education and gender of healthy elderly people on performance on the CERAD neuropsychological test battery, and to determine norms for use in Finland.

Methods

The CERAD neuropsychological battery was administered to a population based random sample of 321 healthy elderly people aged from 63 to 79. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to assess the relative contribution of demographic factors on each cognitive test.

Results

The effect of education on test performance was more significant than the effects of age or gender, and was observed in naming, MMSE, constructional praxis and effectiveness in word list learning. However, the variance due to education remained quite small. The effect of gender was observed in memory and learning, where women outperformed men. The effect of age was less obvious within this age range and appeared in verbal fluency, naming and in word list savings, where younger subjects outperformed older ones.

Conclusions

The normative information presented will be useful in screening for cognitive disorders in elderly people in Finnish primary health care.