Illiteracy in elderly individuals was associated with a higher rate and increased severity of depression. Illiteracy negatively affected depression symptomatology, especially factors associated with self-esteem. Therefore, clinicians should carefully monitor for the presence of depression in illiterate elderly adults.
ObjectiveEducation is expected to have an effect on differential item functioning (DIF) on the 15-item Modified Boston Naming Test in the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Packet (BNT-KC). However, no study has examined DIF in the BNT-KC.MethodsWe used the item response theory to investigate the impact of education on the DIF in the BNT-KC among elderly individuals with or without dementia (n=720). A two-parameter item response model was used to determine the difficulty and discrimination parameters of each item. The Benjamini-Hochberg procedure was used to address the risk of Type I errors on multiple testing.ResultsFour items, “mermaid,” “acorn,” “compass,” and “pomegranate” continued to demonstrate DIF after controlling for multiple comparisons. Those with low education levels were more likely to error on “mermaid” and “compass,” while those with high education levels were more likely to error on “acorn” and “pomegranate.” “Hand” and “red pepper” were too easily identified to be used for detecting dementia patients. “Monk's hat” and “pomegranate” were less discriminating than other items, limiting their usefulness in clinical setting.ConclusionThese findings may provide useful information for the development of a revised version of the BNT-KC to help clinicians make diagnostic decisions more accurately.
A relatively high prevalence of short or long sleep duration was identified. Various sociodemographic variables influenced sleep duration. Depression, cognitive dysfunction, and cardiovascular disease were associated with short or long sleep duration. Careful attention should be paid to the health of elderly individuals who are short or long sleepers.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.