Effects of age, sex and education on verbal fluency tasks in a normal Saudi sample

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction This study’s purpose is to describe the performance of healthy community dwelling Saudi Arabians on fluency tasks and explore the effects of age, sex and education. Methods Arabic-speaking Saudi Arabians > 18 were chosen through convenience sampling. Included were healthy community members whose first language is Arabic. Excluded were anyone with a past history of psychiatric or central neurological diseases, or who was taking medications that affect the central nervous system. Information regarding the variables sex, age, and education was collected. Participants were required to name as many words as they could that started with the letters Ain (ع), Sheen (ش), and Qaf (ق) (letter task), and words that belonged to the categories “countries,” “boy names,” “girl names,” and “four-legged animals” (categorical task). Mean scores were derived for the three letters (ASQ) and four categories (TC). Descriptive statistics, percentile curves, and quantile regressions (0.05, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 0.95) were conducted to determine performance range. Results The study included 301 participants, comprising 162 (53.47%) females. The M(SD) for age was 46.74 (16) and for years of education 14 (4.78). The M(SD) for ASQ was 26.26 (10.01), and for TC, 81.56 (20.77). Percentile curves demonstrated an initial increase, followed by a decrease, in performance with increasing age on letter and categorical fluency tasks. Performance scores showed an increase of 1 to 1.5 and 2 to 3.5 words in the letter and categorical tasks, respectively, for each additional year of education across the quantiles (both with p < 0.0001). Males scored higher in the 0.05 and 0.95 quantiles of the letter fluency task only. Conclusion We demonstrated a range of normative performance from a Saudi Arabian community, with varying age and education levels. The assessment demonstrated the importance of education as a major variable linearly associated with performance, influencing both tasks.