Cognitive Assessment in Culturally, Linguistically, and Educationally Diverse Older Populations in Europe

Abstract

Due to increasing cultural, linguistic, and educational diversity in older populations across Europe, accurate assessment of cognitive functioning in people from diverse backgrounds becomes increasingly important. This paper aims to provide a state-of-the-art review of cognitive assessment in culturally, linguistically, and educationally diverse older populations in Europe, focusing on challenges and recent advances in cross-cultural assessment. Significant work has been carried out on the identification of challenges in cognitive assessment in culturally, linguistically, and educationally diverse older populations and on development and validation of cross-cultural cognitive tests. Most research has addressed the influences of language barriers, education and literacy, and culture and acculturation and in particular, the European Cross-Cultural Neuropsychological Test Battery (CNTB) and the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) are well-validated across European countries. However, cross-cultural cognitive assessment is largely still a developing field in Europe, and there is a continuing need for developments within the field.

Intervention and Prevention of Dementia in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China

“…2 This approach would include cultural awareness to build resilience in the GBA as the papers in this Special Collection have confirmed. [3][4][5][6][7][8]…”

“…All papers converge on the same view: culture specific awareness is vital. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The Special Collection begins with a review of the work of Brayne and Wu 2 who conclude that awareness of cultural contexts in which assessment and treatment occur is often absent or at least not reported, in large population based studies of aging and dementia. They describe the variation they observe within a country (UK) among aging populations by comparing the changes in health conditions across time and place using examples from population-based studies in England and Wales.…”

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Brief Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) International Validations

“…Harmonisation of data across different national and ethnic communities needs careful consideration of cultural and linguistic variables [ 4 ]. The increasingly diverse populations within individual countries require health services to be agile and inclusive [ 5 ]. Important steps to advance cognitive measurement technology are global collaboration and a consensus, credible international validation protocol.…”

The copenhagen cross-linguistic naming test (C-CLNT): Development and validation in a multicultural memory clinic population

“…With increasing demographic aging, migration, and globalization, there is a pressing need for standardized neuropsychological tests suited for diverse older populations (Nielsen, 2022). A certain degree of diversity has always been present in European countries, but cultural, language, and educational diversity has increased greatly over the last seven decades due to increasing mobility within the European Union as well as immigration from countries outside Europe (Van Mol & De Valk, 2016).…”

“…Use of language and culture-specific confrontation naming tests and norms derived for native speakers have limited feasibility in most European memory clinics, in which patients may differ widely in their cultural, linguistic, and educational characteristics (Franzen et al, 2023; Nielsen, 2022). Therefore, to develop a reliable and valid solution for clinical practice it is important to develop confrontation naming tests with potential applicability across diverse cultural and language groups (Franzen et al, 2022).…”