You Say Tomato, I Say Radish: Can Brief Cognitive Assessments in the U.S. Health Retirement Study Be Harmonized With Its International Partner Studies?

DOI PDF PDF 1 Citations
  • Lindsay C Kobayashi
    Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor
  • Alden L Gross
    Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins University Center on Aging and Health, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Laura E Gibbons
    Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle
  • Doug Tommet
    Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
  • R Elizabeth Sanders
    Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle
  • Seo-Eun Choi
    Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle
  • Shubhabrata Mukherjee
    Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle
  • Maria Glymour
    Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco
  • Jennifer J Manly
    Department of Neurology and the Taubman Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University, New York, New York
  • Lisa F Berkman
    Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • Paul K Crane
    Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle
  • Dan M Mungas
    Department of Neurology, University of California, Davis, Sacramento
  • Richard N Jones
    Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
  • Shevaun Neupert
    editor

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Objectives</jats:title> <jats:p>To characterize the extent to which brief cognitive assessments administered in the population-representative U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and its International Partner Studies can be considered to be measuring a single, unidimensional latent cognitive function construct.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>Cognitive function assessments were administered in face-to-face interviews in 12 studies in 26 countries (N = 155,690), including the U.S. HRS and selected International Partner Studies. We used the time point of the first cognitive assessment for each study to minimize differential practice effects across studies and documented cognitive test item coverage across studies. Using confirmatory factor analysis models, we estimated single-factor general cognitive function models and bifactor models representing memory-specific and nonmemory-specific cognitive domains for each study. We evaluated model fits and factor loadings across studies.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Despite relatively sparse and inconsistent cognitive item coverage across studies, all studies had some cognitive test items in common with other studies. In all studies, the bifactor models with a memory-specific domain fit better than single-factor general cognitive function models. The data fit the models at reasonable thresholds for single-factor models in 6 of the 12 studies and for the bifactor models in all 12 of the 12 studies.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Discussion</jats:title> <jats:p>The cognitive assessments in the U.S. HRS and its International Partner Studies reflect comparable underlying cognitive constructs. We discuss the assumptions underlying our methods, present alternatives, and future directions for cross-national harmonization of cognitive aging data.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

Journal

Citations (1)*help

See more

Report a problem

Back to top