NES TEST-PERFORMANCE IN A LARGE US ARMY VETERAN SAMPLE - RELATIONSHIPS WITH BOTH DEMOGRAPHIC-FACTORS AND TRADITIONAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL MEASURES

A large sample of Vietnam-era US Army veterans completed a set of 16 n europsychological tests, including six computer-based tests from the N eurobehavioral Evaluation System (NES), during medical examinations su pervised by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Data for 881 par ticipants of the Agent Orange Validation Study (AOV) and Vietnam Exper ience Study (VES) were available for analysis from public access data tapes provided by CDC. Information was available for several potential covariates from demographic questionnaires, a medical examination, an d a medical history. Exploratory principal components factor analysis of 16 test variables yielded four factors, including one on which most of the NES tests loaded. The single best predictor of most neuropsych ological performance variables was an index of general intellectual le vel as measured at entry into the Army almost 20 years before the neur opsychological examinations. Alcohol drinking variables were not relat ed to neuropsychological performance. Several measures of general inte lligence were compared for use as covariates of neuropsychological tes t performance. All were superior to years of education in statisticall y controlling for general intellectual level.