The Chinese Australian neuropsychological normative study: neuropsychological test norms for Chinese Australians aged 55-90 years

Objective: Given Australia's rapidly ageing population, demand for neuropsychological assessment to assist with the diagnosis and treatment/management of dementia and stroke will increase. Accurate and reliable neuropsychological assessment is dependent on the availability of appropriate normative data. Although more than a quarter of the Australian population comprises culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) individuals, there have been no CALD-specific normative studies published in Australia to date. The primary purpose of the current study was to collect norms on Australia's largest and one of its fastest growing CALD groups, Chinese Australians. Other aims included delineation of the influence of demographic factors and assessment of reliability coefficients of neuropsychological test scores for Chinese Australians. Method: A battery of neuropsychological tests was administered to N=145 community dwelling Chinese Australians aged 55-87years with the assistance of Chinese-speaking interpreters. Results: Multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant influence of demographic factors across most test scores and norms were provided by the relevant stratifications. The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III) Digit Symbol Coding (DSC) emerged as the most reliable tests for use with Chinese Australians. Conclusion: The influence of demographic variables and reliability coefficients of neuropsychological tests developed for dominant western cultural groups cannot be assumed to be the same across CALD groups. Use of CALD-specific norms is recommended to increase the reliability and validity of neuropsychological testing.