Verbal Fluency: An Investigation of Time Variable among Elderly People

Abstract

Objective: Little is known about the impact of time on the verbal fluency performance among elderly population. The aims of this study were to (i) examine the verbal fluency (semantic and action fluency) performance across four quarters of 60 seconds and (ii) explore the relationship between demographic (education and age) and time variables on the performance of elderly individuals. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study of 58 elderly healthy subjects (>59 years) was carried out. Five semantic categories and action fluency were implemented. Participants were stratified into three education groups (Group 1, 2 and 3 including subjects with 5-8 years, 9-11 and more than 12 years of schooling) and each group involved 20, 21 and 17 participants respectively. Results: The findings revealed mean numbers of words among quarters decreased in a linear fashion. There was significant difference between the production in the first quarter and others. It was seen that age did not correlate with fluency performance across quarters. Significant production differences were found between education groups across all quarters. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the fluency scores of elderly healthy subjects with different levels of education along with production across four quarters. It is suggested that future studies include neuropathological conditions for the clinical utility of these measures.