| Publication Abstract Display | | Type: Published Abstract | | Title: Regression-based norms for the Trail Making Test in Spanish. | | Authors: Cherner M, Suarez P, Rivera Mindt M, Taylor MJ, Grant I, Artiola i Fortuny L, Heaton R, and the HNRC Group | | Year: 2010 | | Publication: International Neuropsychological Society, Mid-year Meeting, June 30th to July 3rd | | Volume: Issue: Pages: | | Abstract:OBJECTIVE: We generated norms for the Trail Making Test in an effort to create appropriate interpretive standards for neuropsychological assessment in Spanish speakers from the US-Mexico borderland.
METHOD: The normative sample consisted of 181 healthy native Spanish speakers from the Mexico border regions of Arizona and California, ranging in age from 20 to 55 years (M=37.2, SD=9.5) and in education from 0 to 20 years (M=9.9, SD=4.2), with 58% women. A separate validation sample of 33 healthy Spanish speakers included 58% women, and had a mean age of 38 (13) and mean education of 11 (4) years. Trails A and B raw scores were converted to scaled scores to create a distribution with a mean of 10 and SD of 3. Fractional polynomial regression equations were used to determine the contribution of age, education, and sex to Trails A and B scaled scores and generate demographically adjusted T-scores (M=50, SD=10).
RESULTS: On average, Trails A scores obtained with the new Spanish language norms increased by 1.0 (.64) scaled score and 3.4 (2.5) T-scores, compared to existing English language norms. For Trails B, scaled scores increased by 1.2 (.54) and T-scores by 5.7 (4.0) on average. As expected, the greatest discrepancies between norms occurred in cases with low education. On Trails A, 28% of the normative sample was categorized as impaired based on the existing English language norms. On Trails B this proportion was 36%. In the validation sample, misclassification of impairment decreased by 9% on Trails A and 12.5% on Trails B. Raw-to-scaled conversions and T-score formulae will be presented.
CONCLUSIONS: Population-specific norms result in fewer classification errors and add to the assessment tools available for Spanish speakers from the US-Mexico borderland region. |
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