Is Old Age Just a Number in Language Skills? Language Performance and Its Relation to Age, Education, Gender, Cognitive Screening, and Dentition in Very Old Finnish Speakers

Autor/inn/en	Alantie, Sonja; Tyrkkö, Jukka; Makkonen, Tanja; Renvall, Kati
Titel	Is Old Age Just a Number in Language Skills? Language Performance and Its Relation to Age, Education, Gender, Cognitive Screening, and Dentition in Very Old Finnish Speakers
Quelle	In: Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 65 (2022) 1, S.274-291 (18 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Alantie, Sonja) ORCID (Tyrkkö, Jukka) ORCID (Makkonen, Tanja) ORCID (Renvall, Kati)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1092-4388
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Older Adults; Finno Ugric Languages; Aphasia; Age Differences; Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; Cognitive Ability; Predictor Variables; Dental Health; Oral Language; Language Fluency; Language Skills; Finland + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Älterer Erwachsener; Expressive Aphasie; Aphasie; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Bildungsabschluss; Bildungsgut; Geschlechterkonflikt; Denkfähigkeit; Prädiktor; Zahnärztliche Versorgung; Oral interpretation; Mündlicher Sprachgebrauch; Language skill; Language skills; Sprachkompetenz; Finnland
Abstract	Purpose: This study reports on how very old (VO) Finnish people without dementia perform in the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) and two verbal fluency tasks and which demographic factors predict the performance. Method: The study included fifty 80- to 100-year-old community-dwelling Finnish speakers with no dementing illnesses or speech-language disabilities, who completed the WAB and two verbal fluency tasks. Multifactorial statistical analyses with recursive partitioning were carried out to determine the significant predictors out of five predictor variables (age, gender, education, dentition, and Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE]) for four response variables (WAB Aphasia Quotient [AQ], Language Quotient [LQ], semantic, and phonemic word fluencies). Results: Overall, individual variation was notable in VO speakers. All predictor variables were statistically significantly associated with one or more of the language skills. Age was the most significant predictor; the critical age of 85-86 years was associated with a decline in WAB-AQ and semantic fluency. Poor dentition and the MMSE score both predicted a decline in WAB-LQ and phonemic fluency. A high level of education was positively associated with the skills of the best-performing individuals in WAB-AQ, WAB-LQ, and semantic fluency. Conclusions: VO age is a significant factor contributing to language performance. However, a younger age, a good cognitive performance, intact teeth, and a higher educational level also seem to have a preservative power as regards language skills. Gender differences should be interpreted with caution. The results of this study provide culture- and language-specific normative data, which aids in differentiating typical aging from the signs of acute or degenerative neuropathology to ensure appropriate medical and therapeutic interventions. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2200 Research Blvd #250, Rockville, MD 20850. Tel: 301-296-5700; Fax: 301-296-8580; e-mail: slhr@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01