Letter and category fluency in normal elderly participants: a population-based study

We studied variables influencing category and letter fluency in a large pop ulation-based sample of elderly participants. Letter and category fluency t asks were administered to 1133 unselected non-demented elderly participants in the Paquid cohort on normal and pathological aging. Age, education, pri ncipal lifetime occupation and depressive symptomatology independently infl uenced both category and letter fluency, while gender influenced only categ ory fluency. A conceptualization measure (similarities) was found to influe nce fluency results mostly through education and prior occupation.