ABSTRACT

Background

The Boston Naming Test (BNT) is a neuropsychological tool that is widely utilized in clinical practice to detect naming difficulties (i.e., anomia) in patients with language disorders and to evaluate the semantic memory integrity in patients with cognitive impairment (i.e., Alzheimer’s Disease). The complete version of the test includes 60 items, but several abbreviated forms have been developed in order to shorten the time of administration. These shortened versions have also been translated and adapted in countries where English is not the primary language. It is still necessary, however, to collect normative data from other languages, including Italian.

Aims

The purpose of the current study was to introduce the first Italian version of the 15-item BNT for adults that is comparable to the original English version and to provide normative data based on 275 healthy Italian-speaking adults stratified by age, sex and education. Finally, we assessed the qualitative differences in erroneous answers in order to detect normal incorrect patterns of response.

Methods and Procedures

The 15-item Form 4 proposed by Mack and collaborators, which is included in the latest version of the BNT (2001), was administered to 130 males and 145 females, aged between 18 and 85 years, with a formal education ranging from 5 to 32 years. The 15 items of the original English BNT were double translated, achieving an appropriate cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparison. The statistical analysis was performed applying a generalized linear regression model with inverse Gaussian distribution of the response variables. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was utilized to investigate the relationship between the pattern of responses and the demographic variables.

Results

We provided data for educated Italian adults from multiple age groups stratified by gender and educational background. In addition, our results demonstrate that demographic variables, mostly at the schooling level, play an important role in naming performance, with higher levels of education being strongly associated with better performance

Conclusions

We suggest that this 15-item BNT is a suitable tool for the assessment of naming ability in the adult Italian population.

中文翻译：

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意大利语波士顿命名测试的 15 项版本：成人标准数据

摘要

背景

波士顿命名测试 (BNT) 是一种神经心理学工具，在临床实践中广泛用于检测语言障碍患者的命名困难（即失语症）和评估认知障碍患者（即阿尔茨海默氏病）的语义记忆完整性. 测试的完整版本包括 60 个项目，但为了缩短管理时间，已经开发了几个缩写形式。这些缩短的版本也在英语不是主要语言的国家/地区进行了翻译和改编。然而，仍然有必要从包括意大利语在内的其他语言中收集规范性数据。

宗旨

本研究的目的是介绍第一个意大利语版本的成人 BNT，与原始英语版本相当，并提供基于 275 名按年龄、性别和教育分层的讲意大利语的健康成年人的规范数据。最后，我们评估了错误答案的定性差异，以检测正常的错误响应模式。

方法和程序

最新版本的 BNT (2001) 中包含 Mack 及其合作者提出的 15 项 Form 4，对 130 名男性和 145 名女性进行了管理，年龄在 18 至 85 岁之间，正规教育程度从 5 到32岁。对原英文 BNT 的 15 项进行了双重翻译，实现了适当的跨语言和跨文化比较。应用具有响应变量的逆高斯分布的广义线性回归模型进行统计分析。皮尔逊的相关系数被用来调查反应模式和人口统计变量之间的关系。

结果

我们为按性别和教育背景分层的多个年龄组的受过教育的意大利成年人提供数据。此外，我们的结果表明，人口统计变量（主要在学校教育水平）在命名绩效中发挥重要作用，较高的教育水平与更好的绩效密切相关

结论

我们建议这个 15 项 BNT 是评估意大利成年人命名能力的合适工具。