NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TEST-PERFORMANCE IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND WHITE PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

Little information exists on the performance of black versus white pat ients with Alzheimer's disease on neuropsychological tests for dementi a. In this study, we compared performance on the CERAD (Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease) neuropsychological batte ry between white (n = 830) and black (n = 158) patients with Alzheimer 's disease enrolled in the CERAD study at 23 university medical center s in the United States. The black patients were older, had fewer years of formal education, and were more impaired in their activities of da ily living than were the white patients. After controlling for these c haracteristics and for duration of the disease and severity of dementi a, there were differences in the performance of black and white patien ts on several of the cognitive measures. Black patients scored lower t han whites on tests of visual naming and constructional praxis and on the Mini-Mental State Examination. There were no statistical differenc es in performance on tests of fluency and word list memory. These find ings suggest that cultural or experiential differences may modify perf ormance on specific neuropsychological tests. These factors, in additi on to age and educational background, should be considered when interp reting performance on neuropsychological tests in elderly black patien ts with dementia.