Desempenho de idosos com diferentes níveis de escolaridade em um teste cognitivo digital

Abstract

Due to the increasing number of older adults in society, as well as the prevalence of cognitive impairment in that population, accurate instruments to evaluate cognitive abilities are necessary. It is known that most of the traditional neuropsychological tests are influenced by individual’s educational background. However, there are few studies regarding digital tests usage among the elderly with low schooling. In this study, we aimed to do a systematic literature review to analyze the interaction between older adults’ years of education and digital evaluations; also, we proposed comparing the performance of Brazilian older adults with different educational background in a digital change detection test; as well as compare this test’s results with other, non-digital, cognitive tests. Results are presented in article format. The first, a systematic literature review, analyzed the role of educational level on cognitive digital tests. After the justified exclusions, seven papers from the previous five years were selected. Associations between older adults’ performance on digital tests and educational background were not found. In the second study, the aim was to verify the performance of older adults in a cognitive digital test and comparing its results with traditional cognitive instruments. Participants were assigned into three different groups according to their years of education: G1 (illiterates, n= 55), G2 (1 to 4 years of education, n= 98 ), G3 (5 years of education or more, n= 27. There weren’t differences between the illiterates (G1) and lower-education groups (G2); however, it was observed a difference between these two groups and the higher-education group (G3) regarding performance on change detection task. Furthermore, the digital test was correlated to ACE-R’s general score and its language domain for G3. It is necessary to keep investigating the use of digital tests in the elderly.