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An examination of the validity of neuropsychological and physical testing batteries in Latin-American adults aged over 55 years

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Abstract

Background

Valid and reliable measurements are necessary to understand and monitor age-related changes.

Aims

To describe the factor structure and provide validity evidence of a neuropsychological and a physical testing batteries using factor analysis.

Methods

We performed a secondary analysis of data from the Epidemiology and Development of Alzheimer’s Disease (EDAD) project. Community-dwelling adults aged 55 to 85 years underwent comprehensive physical and neuropsychological assessments. An exploratory factor analysis was performed on both assessment batteries. The models were later confirmed with a random subsample using confirmatory factor analysis.

Results

Data from 238 adults (163 females and 75 males) was included. The neuropsychological model revealed a four-factor structure formed by “Executive Functioning”, “Verbal Memory”, “Logical Memory”, and “Labeling And Reading” (Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings [ESSL] = 56.41% explained variance; Standardized Root Mean Square Residual [SRMSR] = 0.06; Comparative Fit Index [CFI] = 0.98). The physical model was formed by a two-factor structure including “Health-related Fitness and “Functional Fitness” (ESSL = 50.54% explained variance; SRMSR = 0.07; CFI = 0.93).

Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the structure of comprehensive testing batteries for the Latin-American older adults. Our analysis contributes to the understanding of theoretical constructs that are evaluated in the EDAD project.

Conclusion

Our findings provide validity evidence for simplified and reduced testing batteries, which imply shorter testing times and fewer resources.

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Data availability

Data will be provided upon reasonable request to the lead author.

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Funding

No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physical Education and Sports, University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica

    Rebeca Hernández-Gamboa, Yamileth Chacón-Araya & José Moncada-Jiménez

  2. Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Rebeca Hernández-Gamboa

  3. Psychological Research Institute (IIP), University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica

    Mónica Salazar-Villanea

  4. School of Statistics, University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica

    Ricardo Alvarado-Barrantes

  5. Department of Neurology, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    David K. Johnson

  6. Human Movement Sciences Research Center (CIMOHU), University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica

    Yamileth Chacón-Araya & José Moncada-Jiménez

Authors
  1. Rebeca Hernández-Gamboa
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  2. Mónica Salazar-Villanea
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  3. Ricardo Alvarado-Barrantes
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  5. Yamileth Chacón-Araya
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  6. José Moncada-Jiménez
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by RH-G, JM-J and MS-V. The first draft of the manuscript was written by RH-G and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rebeca Hernández-Gamboa.

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Conflict of interest

The authors report no competing interests.

Statement of human and animal rights

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of University of Costa Rica (08/01/2016).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Hernández-Gamboa, R., Salazar-Villanea, M., Alvarado-Barrantes, R. et al. An examination of the validity of neuropsychological and physical testing batteries in Latin-American adults aged over 55 years. Aging Clin Exp Res 35, 3157–3165 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-023-02612-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-023-02612-7

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