Effects of demographic variables and health status on brief vocabulary measures in Greek

Abstract

Background: Assessment of lexical/semantic knowledge is essential on a number of diagnostic situations. Since more than one test is typically required, brief assessments would be useful as part of an extensive neuropsychological battery.

Aims: The present study reports the effects of demographic variables and reported health status on performance on the short forms of three such tests adapted into Greek.

Methods & Procedures: Tests used were PPVT-R, WASI Vocabulary subtest, and BNT. The sample consisted of 468 community-dwelling adults aged 50–84 years.

Outcomes & Results: Short forms consisted of 32 items for the PPVT-R, 15 items for WASI Vocabulary, and 20 items for BNT. Correlation coefficients between full and short forms ranged between .95 and .97. Total rate of inconsistent classification of persons with very low scores (lower than 2 SD below the population mean) based on the short forms was less than 3%, highlighting adequate potential sensitivity for clinical purposes. The equivalence of the two versions of each test was further attested by similar patterns of relationships with demographic variables. Indices of internal consistency and test–retest reliability were very good for each of the three tests. Finally, the sensitivity of the short forms of each test for detecting lexical/semantic deterioration as a function of systemic diseases is discussed.

Keywords:

• Boston Naming Test
• Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
• WASI
• Lexical ability
• Ageing
• Health

Notes

¹The official standardisation of the WASI in the Greek population is under way by another group (Messinis, Lyros, Georgiou, & Papathanasopoulos, 2009). Tests used in this report were adapted for research purposes with permission from NCS Pearson, Inc., San Antonio, TX.