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P3‐484: SEX DIFFERENCES IN LEARNING AND MEMORY WITHIN A CLINICAL SAMPLE OF OLDER ADULTS
Author(s) -
Brunet Hannah E.,
Caldwell Jessica Z.K.,
Miller Justin B.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2018.06.1848
Subject(s) - verbal learning , psychology , recall , california verbal learning test , verbal memory , nonverbal communication , free recall , test (biology) , cognition , developmental psychology , psychiatry , cognitive psychology , paleontology , biology
Mean percentage of decline in cognitive functions in CDR 0.5 patients with respect to performance of controls (CDR 0) by age group. Background: Women have an advantage in verbal memory compared to men and this difference persists into older age (McCarrey et al., 2016). The Hopkins Verbal Learning Test, Revised (HVLT-R; Benedict et al., 1998) is a widely used measure of memory, but the normative sample was predominantly female (75%) and the gender distribution was particularly unequal for older adults. The primary aim of this study was to examine sex differences in HVLT-R performance within a clinical sample of older adults from an outpatient neurology clinic. Methods: Participants were neurology outpatients 60-89 years old (n 1⁄4 1078). HVLT-R measured verbal memory. Given mixed findings describing a male advantage in nonverbal memory (Kane & Yochim, 2016; Pauls et al., 2015), the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test, Revised (Benedict, 1997), was used to evaluate this effect and also rule out a generalized memory advantage in women. ANCOVA analyses evaluated sex differences in learning and delayed recall, controlling for education and depression severity, as these factors significantly differed between sexes. Results:Within the entire sample, women exhibited better verbal learning (p < .001) and recall (p 1⁄4 .003). When stratifying by age cohort, the largest differences were in the 70-79 age group, where women outperformed men on both verbal learning (p < .001) and recall (p 1⁄4 .007). Within the 80-89 age group, there were significant differences in verbal learning, favoring women (p 1⁄4 .003), but no differences in recall. Within the 60-69 age group there were no sex differences in memory. There were no significant sex differences in nonverbal memory. Conclusions:The most striking sex differences occurred within the 70-79 year-old age group, with women recalling almost one more word on average than men (M 1⁄4 4.96 versus M 1⁄4 4.17). This raw score difference corresponds to almost six percentile points when converted to standardized scores. Interestingly, the HVLT-R 70-79 normative age group is the most skewed in gender distribution (90% female). Given the importance of verbal recall performance in the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, HVLT-R sex differences could reduce detection of impairment in women or, alternatively, incorrectly classify men as impaired.