A - 2 The Effect of English Language Fluency, Acculturation, and Length of Stay in the U.S. on Cognitive Functioning in Mexican Americans.

Abstract

Evidence suggests that Hispanic and Latino individuals perform worse on some measures of cognitive functioning than non-Hispanic White individuals. Given this finding, several possible explanations have been posited, including differences in English fluency and acculturation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of English fluency and acculturation on older Mexican American individuals' cognitive testing performance. Participants (M age = 63.44; 66.1% female) were Mexican American (n = 899) community members participating in the Health and Aging Brain Study: Health Disparities study. Information gathered included demographic information, attained education level, language use/fluency, acculturation level, and estimated premorbid functioning (reading score) in addition to cognitive functioning performance (MMSE). Controlling for education and estimated premorbid functioning, both longer stay in the U.S. (β= 1.12, p = 0.006) and more acculturation (β= 1.00, p = 0.035) significantly predicted better cognitive testing performance. Furthermore, after controlling for education and estimated premorbid functioning, using English as a primary language resulted in significantly better testing performance than using Spanish as a primary language and being English fluent (p = 0.006) or non-fluent (p < 0.001). English fluent individuals that used Spanish as their primary language performed significantly better (p < 0.001) than those that were not English fluent and used Spanish as their primary language. Our findings suggest that factors associated with U.S. acculturation, including stay in the U.S. and English fluency, influence cognitive testing performance. Additional cultural considerations and adaptions may be needed for current neuropsychology measures, such as cognitive testing instruments.