Validation and normative data of the Spanish version of the Face‐Name Associative Memory Exam (S‐FNAME): Findings from the Barcelona Brain Health Initiative

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThree previous studies administrated the Spanish version of the Face Name Associative Memory Exam task (S‐FNAME) to Spanish participants. Sanabria and collaborators, (2018) in their investigation on subjective cognitive decline individuals, reported associations between task performance and amyloid‐β (Aβ) burden, in accordance with the original publication (Renz et al., 2011). Alegret and colleagues (2015) provided normative data and psychometric characteristics, albeit the study was limited to subjects attending a memory clinic and included a reduced number of participants (N=110) with gender inequality distribution. The purpose of this study was to provide normative data and psychometric characteristics of the S‐FNAME in a larger independent sample of cognitively healthy individuals.MethodS‐FNAME was administered, according to standardized procedure published by Alegret et al. (2015), to 513 cognitively volunteers (243 women, mean age= 52,67±7,04, age range 41‐65, years of education= 17,28±3,71) participating in a longitudinal prospective cohort study (Barcelona Brain Health Initiative; Cattaneo et al., 2018). Subjects with diagnosis of neurological or psychiatric disease, substance abuse or treatment with psychopharmacological drugs, MMSE < 27, and cognitive impairments were excluded.ResultFactor analysis supported construct validity revealing two underlying components: face‐name and face‐occupation and explaining 95,36% of the total variance. Correlations between S‐FNAME and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) were significant (ρ=.392, p=.00) and confirm its concurrent criterion validity. We also found weak and no significant correlations with other non‐memory cognitive tests supporting divergent criterion validity. Women showed better scores and S‐FNAME scales were positively correlated with years of education and negatively with age. Finally, we generated normative data for Spanish population aged 40–65 years.ConclusionS‐FNAME exhibits good psychometric properties, consistent with previous findings regarding factorial structure and correlation with other measures and socio‐demographics variables (Alegret et al., 2015; Amariglio et al., 2012), although we found association with education in contrast to previous publications. S‐FNAME could serve as useful tool to assess memory impairments in Spanish population both for research purposes and clinical practice, to examine healthy older adult population and capture subtle cognitive decline or memory dysfunction associated to abnormal brain aging.