Sex, Ethnicity, Age and Education Effects on the Trail Making Test in a Sample of Cocaine Abusers

Abstract

Sex, ethnicity, age and education effects on the Trail Making test (TMT), a test often used to for screen for cognitive impairment, were examined in a sample of cocaine abusers in drug abuse treatment programs. A mixed race sample of 5116 males and 2614 females was drawn from electronic files of data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS). The DATOS was a naturalistic, prospective cohort study that collected data from 1991-1993 in 96 programs in 11 cities in the United States. The number of cocaine/crack abuser scores available for analysis was 4306. Data were analyzed to determine the effects of sex, ethnicity, age and education variables on the two parts of the TMT in this large treatment sample of cocaine abusers. The variables of sex age, ethnicity and education were statistically significant for both parts A and B of the TMT. In addition, R-Square values for overall models were quite weak (A =. 08, B =. 11) suggesting that sex, ethnicity, age and education effects on the TMT, while clearly present, account for relatively little overall variance in terms of cocaine users TMT performance. These results arc consistent with earlier research using a more heterogenous drug abuse treatment sample.

Key Words:

• Drug abuse
• Cocaine/crack
• Drug abuse treatment
• Trail making test