Longitudinal neuropsychological changes in a "normal" elderly group

Abstract

The need for age-related normative data on neuropsychological measures is clearly important. This longitudinal study examines a "normal" elderly group's performance on the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) across four years. This report is based on the 59 "normal" elderly volunteers seen in an earlier cross-sectional aging study (MacInnes et al., 1983). The LNNB Clinical Scales exhibited few significant changes across the four year time period. The test-retest correlations of the LNNB Clinical Scales ranged from.32 to.81. Few differences between males and females were seen. Similarly, being in an older subgroup did not affect the rate of change on the LNNB scores. Although, health status changed very little over the four years, health status at Time 2 did significantly predict 16 of the 17 LNNB Clinical Scales at Time 2. In summary, we found the LNNB accurately identified the "normal" elderly as normal. Similarly, their performance on the LNNB exhibited little meaningful change across four years.