Verbal fluency of younger and older adults from the Federal District: proposed normative values

Brenda Cardoso Silva de Souza

Curso de Fonoaudiologia, Faculdade de Ceilândia – FCE, Universidade de Brasília – UnB – Brasília (DF), Brasil.

Tailah de Oliveira Barreiros Teixeira

Curso de Fonoaudiologia, Faculdade de Ceilândia – FCE, Universidade de Brasília – UnB – Brasília (DF), Brasil.

Liara Dias da Silva

Curso de Fonoaudiologia, Faculdade de Ceilândia – FCE, Universidade de Brasília – UnB – Brasília (DF), Brasil.

Corina Satler

Curso de Fonoaudiologia, Faculdade de Ceilândia – FCE, Universidade de Brasília – UnB – Brasília (DF), Brasil.

Maysa Luchesi Cera

Curso de Fonoaudiologia, Faculdade de Ceilândia – FCE, Universidade de Brasília – UnB – Brasília (DF), Brasil.

Authors’ contribution:

BCSS was involved in data acquisition, analysis and interpretation, and in editing the article; TOBT was involved in data acquisition, analysis and interpretation, and in editing the article; LDS was involved in data acquisition, analysis and interpretation; CS was involved in the writing, editing and critical intellectual review of the article; MLC was the supervisor and involved in devising and planning the study, writing the article, and in approval of the final draft for publication.

Demographic variable	Older adults (n=30)	Younger adults (n=30)	p-value – x² test
Gender (n %)	27 (90%)	26 (87%)	0.688
Age	66.77 (4.57)	28.70 (7.93)	<0.001
Education	7.57 (3.73)	8.17 (4.06)	0.732
Economic class	31.57 (9.81)	26.83 (7.77)	0.072
Demographic variable	Low-educated participants (n=30)	High-educated participants (n=30)	p-value – Mann Whitney test
Gender (n %)	26 (87%)	27 (90%)	0.688
Age	47.37 (21.56)	48.10 (19.18)	0.888
Education	4.80 (1.85)	10.93 (2.78)	<0.001
Economic class	26.70 (7.94)	31.70 (9.62)	0.038
Demographic variable	Low-educated older adults (n=15)	Low-educated younger adults (n=15)	p-value – Mann Whitney test
Gender (n %)	14 (93%)	12 (80%)	0.283
Age	67.40 (5.08)	27.33 (8.80)	<0.001
Education	4.53 (1.88)	5.07 (1.83)	0.486
Economic class	28.27 (8.34)	25.13 (7.46)	0.068
Demographic variable	High-educated older adults (n=15)	High-educated younger adults (n=15)	p-value – Mann Whitney test
Gender (n %)	13 (87%)	14 (93%)	0.688
Age	66.13 (4.07)	30.07 (6.98)	<0.001
Education	10.60 (2.35)	11.27 (3.20)	0.780
Economic class	34.87 (10.33)	28.53 (7.96)	0.205

	Age groups
	Older adults	Younger adults
	(n=30)	(n=30)
			Statistic
Subtest	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mann-Whitney U-Test	p-value
Unconstrained verbal fluency	47.37 (21.9)	52.72 (20.95)	371.5	0.335
Phonemic verbal fluency	15.70 (7.25)	16.80 (7.68)	413	0.584
Semantic verbal fluency	16.23 (4.31)	16.37 (5.35)	421	0.667
	Education groups
	Low-educated younger adults	High-educated younger adults
	(n=30)	(n=30)
			Statistic
Subtest	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mann-Whitney U-Test	p-value
Unconstrained verbal fluency	42.17 (17.13)	57.57 (22.68)	225	0.001^* * Valores estatisticamente significantes (p≤0,05)
Phonemic verbal fluency	13.90 (6.86)	18.60 (7.32)	286	0.015*
Semantic verbal fluency	15.50 (5.06)	17.10 (4.51)	351.5	0.144
	Low-educated age subgroups
	Older adults	Younger adults
	(n=15)	(n=15)
			Statistic
Subtest	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mann-Whitney U-Test	p-value
Unconstrained verbal fluency	42.93 (22.06)	41.36 (10.33)	97.50	0.747
Phonemic verbal fluency	13.40 (5.89)	14.40 (7.90)	108	0.870
Semantic verbal fluency	16.80 (4.95)	14.20 (4.99)	89.00	0.345
	High-educated age subgroups
	Older adults	Younger adults
	(n=15)	(n=15)
			Statistic
Subtest	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mann-Whitney U-Test	p-value
Unconstrained verbal fluency	51.80 (21.57)	63.33 (23.00)	81.00	0.202
Phonemic verbal fluency	18.00 (7.94)	19.20 (6.88)	104.5	0.744
Semantic verbal fluency	15.67 (3.66)	18.53 (4.93)	64.50	0.045*

Subtests	High-educated older adults			Low-educated older adults
Subtests	Mean for FD	Normative average for South	Statistic	Mean for FD	Normative average for South	Statistic
Unconstrained verbal fluency	51.8 (21.57)	43.72 (16.11)	df=8.08, CI=-3.86 to 20.02, t=1.45, p=0.169	42.93 (22.06)	31.46 (14.40)	df=11.47, CI=-0.74 to 23.69, t=2.01, p=0.064
Phonemic verbal fluency	18 (7.94)	21.36 (8.74)	df=-3.36, CI=-7.76 to 1.04. t=-1,.4. p=0.123	13.4 (5.89)	16.46 (6.26)	df=-3.06, CI=-6.32 to 0.20. t=-2.01, p=0.064
Semantic verbal fluency	15.67 (3.66)	23.48 (5.57)	df=-7.81, CI=-9.84 to -5.79, t=-8.27, p=0.000*	16.8 (4.95)	18.28 (4.45)	df=-1.48, CI=-4.22 to 1.26, t=-1.16, p=0.266
	High-educated younger adults			Low-educated younger adults
Subtests	Mean for FD	Normative average for South	Statistic	Mean for FD	Normative average for South	Statistic
Unconstrained verbal fluency	63.33 (23.00)	61.88 (23.90)	df=1.45, CI=-11.28 to 14.19, t=0.24, p-value=0.810	41.36 (10.33)	39.66 (21.40)	df=1.70, CI=-4.27 to 7.66, t=0.61, p-value=0.549
Phonemic verbal fluency	19.20 (6.88)	27.06 (6.92)	df=-7.86, CI=-11.67 to -4.05, t=-4.43, p-value=0.001*	14.40 (8.00)	20.54 (8.84)	df=-6.14, CI=-10.51 to -1.76, t=-3.01, p-value=0.009*
Semantic verbal fluency	18.53 (4.93)	30.98 (6.29)	df=-12.45, CI=-15.17, t=-9.79 to 9.72, p-value=0.000*	14.20 (4.99)	20.96 (6.67	df=-6.76, CI=-9.52 to -4.00, t=-5.25, p-value=0.000*

Subtests	Older adults				Younger adults
	High education		Low education		High education		Low education
	10^th percentile for FD	10^th percentile for South	10^th percentile for FD	10^th percentile for South	10^th percentile for FD	10^th percentile for South	10^th percentile for FD	10^th percentile for South
Unconstrained verbal fluency	37.00	25.10	24.20	15.00	35.60	30.30	30.00	15.00
Phonemic verbal fluency	9.60	12.10	7.00	8.10	11.20	17.10	5.00	10.10
Semantic verbal fluency	12.40	16.10	11.40	13.00	12.60	22.00	8.60	13.10
Subtests	Cut-off point for FD	Cut-off point for South	Cut-off point for FD	Cut-off point for South	Cut-off point for FD	Cut-off point for South	Cut-off point for FD	Cut-off point for South
Unconstrained verbal fluency	37.00	26.00	24.00	15.00	36.00	31.00	30.00	15.00
Phonemic verbal fluency	10.00	13.00	7.00	9.00	12.00	18.00	5.00	11.00
Semantic verbal fluency	12.00	17.00	12.00	13.00	13.00	22.00	9.00	14.00

Brasil