New Mandarin cognitive tests improve dementia diagnosis for Chinese older adults

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing group of older adults in the U.S., but they often face language and cultural barriers when seeking care for dementia-related symptoms.

As part of a broader mission to tackle these challenges, a Rutgers Health-led study involving internationally renowned clinicians and scientists from the National Institute on Aging-funded Rutgers-NYU Resource Center for Alzheimer's Disease and Research Center in Asian and Pacific Americans and Stanford Alzheimer's Disease Research Center has proposed a solution for older Americans from China and Taiwan.

The study, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, designed a new suite of neuropsychological tests suitable for Mandarin-speaking older adults. Researchers developed and validated these tests, accounting for the non-alphabetical nature of Chinese languages, frequency of Chinese character and word usage in daily living, and cultural exposure before moving to the U.S.

The recent Chinese Older Adult STudy (COAST) involved 208 older adults ages 60 to 90 from throughout New Jersey, New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area with varying degrees of bilingualism. Researchers tested the reproducibility of the cognitive tests over six months, equivalency to corresponding English tests and correspondence to known dimensions of memory and thinking.