The accuracy of neuropsychological assessment is critical in the diagnosis of
cognitive impairments in older adults. However, existing neuropsychological
tests may not be suitable for minority populations. This thesis aimed to address
this issue by recruiting cognitively-healthy South Asian older adults and
assessing cognitive function in this group. Results showed that typically used
assessments, despite being translated, were not suitable for this cohort.
Furthermore, skills required for test completion such as mathematics and
writing/hand dexterity (which are related to education levels) influenced test
scores. Therefore, new assessments of general cognitive function and
associative memory were developed to improve the accuracy of
neuropsychological test scores. The new tests were not affected by education
and they achieved high internal and test re-test reliability. Time of day (TOD)
that testing takes place is also known to affect cognition. Interestingly, no TOD
effects were observed in this cohort. It was hypothesised that engagement in
the daily five Islamic prayers may have contributed to this lack of a TOD effect.
However, the results did not confirm this. The thesis then looked at overall
prayer engagement and cognition. Results showed that engagement in the
daily five prayers and Quran recitation significantly increased scores on
assessments of processing speed. This thesis demonstrates that accurately
assessing cognition in South Asian older adults is challenging and that the
cognitive tests used must be suitable for this cohort. Interesting findings
emerged for prayer engagement which may have wider implications for the
field of cognitive reserve.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/19133 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Parveen, F. Choudhry |
| Contributors | Walters, Elizabeth R., Lesk, Valerie E. |
| Publisher | University of Bradford, Faculty of Management Law and Social Sciences |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. |
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