ABSTRACT

Background

Connected speech-language (CSL) has been a promising measure of assessing cognitive decline in populations at-risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) populations. A common way to obtain CSL is through using picture description tasks such as the most frequently used image, “Cookie Theft” (CT). However, questions have been raised about using CT for diverse communities. Little is known about the CSL produced in response to this task in late-middle aged Black/African American (BAA) adults.

Goals

The present study’s goals were to characterize CSL in BAA adults by sex and APOE-ε4 status from Milwaukee in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP) study when presented with the CT picture description task, and to identify differences in CSL output between BAAs and non-Hispanic Whites (NHW).

Methods and Procedures

We collected CSL samples from the CT picture from 48 BAA participants and 30 NHW participants from the WRAP participants in Milwaukee, WI group. CSL was analyzed using chi-square tests, T-tests, and ANCOVA. Linear mixed effect regression models were used to determine the association between cognitive status and longitudinal CSL in BAA participants with more than 1 timepoint.

Outcomes and Results

Declines in CSL of BAA participants were associated with subtle declines in cognition. Among BAA participants, we found no significant differences in speech measures in terms of sex and APOE-ε4 status. Our results showed no significant differences in total words between BAA and NHW groups.

Conclusions

CSL analysis provides an inexpensive way to evaluate preclinical changes in cognitive status that may not be as affected by other factors as traditional cognitive tests, such as ethnocultural background. Future studies with larger sample sizes and participants from other geographic locations can clarify these findings.

中文翻译：

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对关联语音和语言作为有阿尔茨海默病风险的中年黑人/非裔美国成年人认知变化标志的初步评估

 抽象的

 背景

互联语音（CSL）一直是评估阿尔茨海默病和相关痴呆症（ADRD）高危人群认知能力下降的一种有前景的指标。获取 CSL 的常见方法是使用图片描述任务，例如最常用的图像“Cookie Theft”（CT）。然而，人们对在不同社区使用 CT 提出了疑问。我们对中晚黑人/非裔美国人 (BAA) 成年人为应对这项任务而产生的 CSL 知之甚少。

 目标

本研究的目标是在威斯康星州阿尔茨海默病预防登记处 (WRAP) 研究中，在执行 CT 图片描述任务时，按性别和来自密尔沃基的APOE-ε4状态来描述 BAA 成年人的 CSL 特征，并确定 BAA 和 BAA 之间 CSL 输出的差异。非西班牙裔白人 (NHW)。

 方法和程序

我们从威斯康星州密尔沃基市 WRAP 参与者的 48 名 BAA 参与者和 30 名 NHW 参与者的 CT 图片中收集了 CSL 样本。使用卡方检验、T 检验和 ANCOVA 分析 CSL。使用线性混合效应回归模型来确定超过 1 个时间点的 BAA 参与者认知状态与纵向 CSL 之间的关联。

 结果和结果

BAA 参与者的 CSL 下降与认知能力的轻微下降有关。在 BAA 参与者中，我们发现性别和APOE-ε4状态方面的言语测量没有显着差异。我们的结果显示 BAA 组和 NHW 组之间的总单词数没有显着差异。

 结论

CSL 分析提供了一种廉价的方法来评估认知状态的临床前变化，这种变化可能不像传统认知测试那样受到其他因素（例如民族文化背景）的影响。未来具有更大样本量和来自其他地理位置的参与者的研究可以澄清这些发现。