The current investigation examined intraindividual variability and predictors of this variability on neuropsychological measures. A total of 50 (39 women and 11 men) independently living, community-dwelling African Americans ranging in age from 50 to 80 years (M = 65.40, SD = 8.53) were asked to complete measures assessing socio-demographics, physical health (i.e. blood pressure and sleep), and cognitive functioning (i.e. executive function, memory, perceptual speed, constructions, and language) over 8 occasions within a 2-3 week period. The current study observed intraindividual variability across the neuropsychological measures. Results from multilevel modeling suggested that a within-person change in systolic blood pressure was positively associated with performance on executive function (e.g., Letter Fluency), particularly for those participants who on average had high systolic blood pressure and high stress. In contrast, a within-person change in sleep duration was associated with worse performance on constructions and executive functioning (e.g., Letter Fluency). Results also reflected a significant interaction between within-person change in sleep duration and average sleep duration for both perceptual speed (e.g., Number Comparison test) and executive function (e.g., Stroop task). Individuals with low sleep duration on average tended to perform poorly, particularly on those occasions when their sleep duration was below their personal average. In contrast, individuals with high sleep duration on average tended to perform poorly, particularly on those occasions when their sleep duration was above their personal average. Furthermore, daily fluctuations in sleep duration were associated with an increased risk for classification of mild cognitive impairment. The results suggest that variability on neuropsychological measures may be a useful clinical assessment of older African Americansâ cognitive competency.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-05262009-230637 |
| Date | 17 June 2009 |
| Creators | Gamaldo, Alyssa Ann |
| Contributors | Jason Allaire, Thomas Hess, Shevaun Neupert, Keith Whitfield |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-05262009-230637/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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