Normative data for Australian midlife women on category fluencyand a short form of the Boston Naming Test

Abstract

This study presents Australian normative data for verbal fluency and visual confrontational naming for midlife women and examines factors that mediate verbal performance in this population. Two hundred and fifty-seven healthy Australian-born women aged 56 – 67 years who participated in the Melbourne Women's Midlife Longitudinal Health Project were assessed for verbal fluency and visual confrontational naming. Verbal fluency was assessed using the “animals” category fluency task, where participants are asked to name as many animals as they could in 1 min. Confrontational naming was assessed using a modified 30-item version of the Boston Naming Test. The Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale was also administered to assess mood. Verbal fluency and confrontational naming were significantly associated with education level such that women with higher levels of education (⩾12 years) demonstrated stronger verbal performance as compared to women with lower levels of education (<12 years). No association was found between verbal performance and age for this sample of Australian women. Mood was unrelated to test performance. Mean fluency and naming scores of women in the present sample tended to be higher than normative values in samples from the United States. The present data provide important comparative information regarding the verbal fluency performance in midlife Australian-born women, which may serve as a reference for more precise clinical decision-making in the Australian context.