Comparison of Coherence and Efficiency in Discourse Production of Middle-old and Old-old Elderly

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the degree of coherence and efficiency in the discourse production of cognitively healthy middle-old and old-old groups in elderly. Methods: Eleven middle-old (age: 79.00 ± 2.76) and 6 old-old subjects (age: 89.67 ± 3.78) performed three types of discourse tasks. The coherence score and the propositional density were used to compare the degree of topic maintenance and efficiency between two groups. The differences between the groups were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test. A correlation among the two scores, demographic information, language test results, and the Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE) were also examined. Results: There was a significant difference in propositional density between the two groups. The coherence score correlated with age, K-MMSE, and a confrontation naming test. Conclusion: The results of the present study is significant in that it is the first study to compare the performance of discourse production in the old-old elderly with those of the middle-old elderly. In addition, theme maintenance of normal elderly over 75 years of age is associated with their confrontation naming abilities and overall cognitive abilities.

The Profile of Task Performances for Cognitive-communicative Intervention in the Oldest-Old

“…이 같은 양상은 75세를 기점으로 연령이 높아질수록 더욱 악화된다 (Marini et al, 2005). 세부적으로는 발화의 통일성보다 명제밀도의 측면에 서 중고령층과 초고령층 집단 간의 차이가 더 크다고 보고된다 (Kim & Lee, 2019 Kim et al, 2015;Lee, 2015). 중심 단어 : 초고령층, 인지-의사소통, 수행 프로파일, 중재.…”