RESUMO
A cross-sequential design was used to examine changes related to aging in adults with and without Down syndrome (ns = 55 and 75, respectively). Adults received yearly neuropsychological and medical evaluations. Support for precocious aging in adults with Down syndrome was evident only on a test of verbal fluency, with weaker support obtained on a test of fine-motor skills. Cross-sectional age differences for all adults were obtained on tests of memory and community living skills. General intellectual level, gender, and psychiatric status were consistently related to performance, indicating the need to examine such mediating variables in studies on aging.
Assuntos
Síndrome de Down/diagnóstico , Deficiência Intelectual/diagnóstico , Atividades Cotidianas/classificação , Atividades Cotidianas/psicologia , Adulto , Fatores Etários , Idoso , Senilidade Prematura/diagnóstico , Senilidade Prematura/epidemiologia , Doença de Alzheimer/diagnóstico , Doença de Alzheimer/epidemiologia , Transtornos Cognitivos/diagnóstico , Transtornos Cognitivos/epidemiologia , Estudos Transversais , Síndrome de Down/epidemiologia , Feminino , Seguimentos , Nível de Saúde , Humanos , Deficiência Intelectual/epidemiologia , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Destreza Motora , Testes Neuropsicológicos/estatística & dados numéricos , Psicometria , Desempenho Psicomotor , Tempo de Reação , Fatores de Risco , Aprendizagem Verbal , Escalas de Wechsler/estatística & dados numéricosRESUMO
We compared groups with and without diagnosed dementia matched on IQ, age, and presence of Down syndrome. The Dementia Scale for Down Syndrome and Dementia Questionnaire for Mentally Retarded Persons were used to assess participants. We developed two performance tasks to determine whether they were useful in separating subjects with and without dementia and also used the Reiss Screen. Both dementia scales and both performance tasks discriminated between groups. The dementia scales were not related to premorbid IQ, age, or gender, whereas performance tasks were related to dementia and IQ but not age or gender. Various Reiss Screen subscales also discriminated between groups. Subscales of the screening instruments and performance tasks were significantly related, indicating congruent validity. Logistic regression was conducted to assess which combination of tests discriminated best between groups.