Normative data for healthy middle-aged and elderly performance on the Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination-Revised

Abstract

Objective: To provide normative data for healthy middle-aged and elderly Brazilians' performance on the Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) and to investigate the effects of age, sex, and schooling on test performance.

Background: The ACE-R is a brief cognitive battery that assesses various aspects of cognition. Its 5 subdomains (Attention and Orientation, Memory, Verbal Fluency, Language, and Visuospatial Abilities) are commonly impaired in Alzheimer disease or frontotemporal dementia.

Methods: We evaluated 144 cognitively healthy volunteers (50% men, 50% women) aged 50 to 93 years, with 4 to 24 years of schooling. We divided the participants into 4 age groups, each of which was then stratified into 3 groups according to years of education. We assessed all participants with the ACE-R, the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, and the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia.

Results: Years of education affected all ACE-R subscores. Age influenced the Verbal Fluency subscore (P<0.001) and the ACE-R total score (P<0.05). Sex affected the Attention and Orientation (P=0.037) and Mini-Mental State Examination subscores (P=0.048), but not the ACE-R total score (P>0.05).

Conclusions: The performance of healthy middle-aged and elderly individuals on the ACE-R battery is strongly influenced by education and, to a lesser extent, by age. These findings are of special relevance in countries with populations that have marked heterogeneity in educational levels.