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Neuropsychological test performance in African-American and white patients with Alzheimer's disease
Welsh KA, Fillenbaum G, Wilkinson W, Heyman A, Mohs RC, Stern Y, Harrell L, Edland SD et al.. Neurology, 1995-12-01
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
Little information exists on the performance of black versus white patients with Alzheimer's disease on neuropsychological tests for dementia. In this study, we compared performance on the CERAD (Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease) neuropsychological battery between white (n = 830) and black (n = 158) patients with Alzheimer's disease enrolled in the CERAD study at 23 university medical centers in the United States. The black patients were older, had fewer years of formal education, and were more impaired in their activities of daily living than were the white patients. After controlling for these characteristics and for duration of the disease and severity of dementia, there were differences in the performance of black and white patients on several of the cognitive measures. Black patients scored lower than whites on tests of visual naming and constructional praxis and on the Mini-Mental State Examination. There were no statistical differences in performance on tests of fluency and word list memory. These findings suggest that cultural or experiential differences may modify performance on specific neuropsychological tests. These factors, in addition to age and educational background, should be considered when interpreting performance on neuropsychological tests in elderly black patients with dementia.
Key findings
- Little information exists on the performance of black versus white patients with Alzheimer's disease on neuropsychological tests for dementia.
- These findings suggest that cultural or experiential differences may modify performance on specific neuropsychological tests.
Why it matters
This study found that Black and white patients with Alzheimer's disease performed differently on some neuropsychological tests, with Black patients scoring lower on visual naming, constructional praxis, and the Mini-Mental State Examination. It suggests cultural or experiential differences may affect test performance and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Study details
- Participants830
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 46/100
Published in a leading specialty journal. Scored zero for study design, effect reported and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Neurology) |
| Journal's citation record | 4 / 4 | Neurology: journal h-index 525 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 1 / 5 | 1995 — older than 20 years, still counted |
| Sample size | 2 / 4 | 830 participants |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (participant count stated) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 5 / 7 | Cited 106 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 2 / 5 | 3.2 citations a year over 33 year(s) since 1995 |
| Impact for its field and year | 2 / 6 | Cited 2.4× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 2 / 6 | Cited by 5 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 0 / 4 | Cited 1 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 2 / 4 | Last-listed author Duane L. Beekly: h-index 28 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 1 / 3 | Duke Medical Center: institution h-index 1,255 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 0 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 1 institution(s) in 1 country — scores zero (affiliation lists can be incomplete) |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 8848195) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Total | 46 / 100 | — |
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Read the original
- DOI: 10.1212/wnl.45.12.2207
- PubMed: 8848195
- Original source →
- Free full text: Columbia Academic Commons (Columbia University) →
Full text: free to read — OpenAlex lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 6 Feb 1020).
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Welsh, K. A., Fillenbaum, G., Wilkinson, W., Heyman, A., Mohs, R. C., Stern, Y., et al. (1995). Neuropsychological test performance in African-American and white patients with Alzheimer's disease. Neurology. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.45.12.2207
Vancouver
Welsh KA, Fillenbaum G, Wilkinson W, Heyman A, Mohs RC, Stern Y, et al. Neuropsychological test performance in African-American and white patients with Alzheimer's disease. Neurology. 1995. doi:10.1212/wnl.45.12.2207. PMID: 8848195.
BibTeX
@article{welsh1995-8848195,
author = {Welsh, K. A. and Fillenbaum, G. and Wilkinson, W. and Heyman, A. and Mohs, R. C. and Stern, Y. and Harrell, L. and Edland, S. D. and others},
title = {{Neuropsychological test performance in African-American and white patients with Alzheimer's disease}},
journal = {Neurology},
year = {1995},
doi = {10.1212/wnl.45.12.2207},
pmid = {8848195},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.45.12.2207}
}
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