Expanded normative data for the Boston Naming Test for use with urban, elderly medical patients

Boston Naming Test (BNT) normative data from 233 neurologically intact pati ents ages 65-95 are provided for use in urban, medical settings. The BNT sc ores obtained from this sample of lower educated, ethnically diverse, medic al patients were much lower than those reported in previous studies of high ly educated, optimally healthy adults (e.g., Ivnik et al., 1996; Van Gorp e t al., 1986). The authors argue that the selection of BNT normative data fo r clinical use should reflect the degree to which the demographic character istics of the normative samples match those of their patients. Clinicians a nd future test developers are encouraged to pursue alternatives to census-b ased approaches to stratification by collecting local norms that target ind ividuals from underrepresented demographic groups.