Estudo Normativo do Token Test versão reduzida: dados preliminares para uma população de idosos brasileiros

Abstract

Introduction: The preservation of oral comprehension in the elderly is correlated with the preservation of their cognitive functions. Oral comprehension is a key feature for communication and its evaluation allows for the identification of more specific cognitive deficits, in addition to facilitating the development of more effective, early intervention strategies. Objective: Provide contemporary standards for the use of an instrument to assess oral comprehension, the Token Test, in a sample of healthy seniors. Method: A sample of 120 patients (76 women) with mean age of 71.1 years and 6.9 years of formal education, was assessed using the Mini Mental State Examination to identify the existence of cognitive impairment, and the Token Test to assess oral comprehension. Results: There were significant correlations (p < 0.01) between the token test scores for education and age, which accounted for 5% and 21% of shared variance, respectively. These two variables were considered on the normative data tables. Discussion: The data obtained indicate that the standards provided here are sufficiently representative. This study identifies the need for future studies comparing the Token Test performance in elderly people either healthy or in the process of cognitive decline.

Evaluating Language Comprehension in Alzheimer's disease: the use of the Token Test

“…Nevertheless, these correlations were not significant in the AD group. The moderate correlation between education and test performance was congruent with Moreira et al 7 findings, except by the lack of association with age, since the author and other studies 11,12 have found that data. The influence of depressive symptoms in the TT is not well documented, but the weak correlation found in our study indicates that depression may be associated with worst performance, as pointed by Brown et al 22 .…”

“…The AD patients were compared to healthy older adults matched by age, gender and educational background (total years of formal schooling) by independent sample's t-tests, and the effect sizes were computed by the Cohen's d. For these group comparisons, the TT raw scores and also the scaled scores proposed by Moreira et al 7 in the test normatization for Brazilian older adults were used. Scaled scores had the advantage of gender, age and educational control, offering a more unbiased result.…”

“…The test presents several different versions, including a short one 9 . Similarly to other countries, there are several Brazilian studies suggesting the clinical applicability of the TT to language assessment in children 6 , adults 10 and elderly 7,11,12 . Nonetheless, there are not Brazilian studies assessing psychometric properties of the TT, such as its validity, on Brazilian elderly subjects.…”

“…The test has shown great efficiency in detecting and characterizing comprehension impairments. It has some advantages for the appraisal of these features, such as easiness of testing, non-verbal output, different levels of complexity, low cost and quick application [5][6][7][8] . The TT is a worldwide screening tool with psychometric studies in several countries 8 .…”

Avaliação da linguagem após acidente vascular cerebral em adultos no estado de Sergipe

“…The advancement in health sciences influences a higher life expectancy and, for this reason, contributes to the increase in the number of elderly people 2 ,a fact that is observed nearly everywhere around the world 3 . According to demographic data, analyze the language of aphasic subjects in order to guide the professionals who work in the field of aphasia in their task of restructuring language.…”