Background: The assessment of cognitive performance in the elderly is essential for the establishment of a diagnosis of cognitive decline and the evaluation of the effectiveness of treatment interventions. Single and repeated cognitive assessment may depend on the effectiveness and validity of standardized instruments as well as on co-existing biological and non-biological factors.
Aims: To demonstrate the usefulness of an instrument of repeated measure of cognitive performance. To present effects of co-existing biological and non-biological conditions on cognitive performance.
Methods: Methodological aspects of repeated cognitive testing were assessed with RBANS in a clinical sample. Biological (cytokines as measures of systemic inflammation) and non-biological (depression) factors were assessed in a population-based study (N = 368) of the elderly.
Results: In principal, methodological aspects of repeated cognitive testing will be presented with data in a clinical sample using the RBANS tool. Other non-biological factors such as depression demonstrate that depression in older adults is primarily associated with decreased processing speed and motor functioning, but not executive control functions. Changes in depressive symptoms in milder forms of depressive mood are associated with a larger decline in cognitive function than in severer forms of depressive mood. Biological markers of systemic inflammation demonstrate that increased serum concentrations and genetic polymorphisms of cytokines affect performance in various domains of cognitive functioning.
Conclusion: When assessing cognitive performance in the elderly, clinicians need to take methodological characteristics of the neuropsychological assessment tool (RBANS) as well as biological and non-biological factors of the patients into account.
