A Systematic Review of Neuropsychological Tests for the Assessment of Dementia in Non-Western, Low-Educated or Illiterate Populations.

Objective: Neuropsychological tests are important instruments to determine a cognitive profile, giving insight into the etiology of dementia; however, these tests cannot readily be used in culturally diverse, low-educated populations, due to their dependence upon (Western) culture, education, and literacy. In this review we aim to give an overview of studies investigating domain-specific cognitive tests used to assess dementia in non-Western, low-educated populations. The second aim was to examine the quality of these studies and of the adaptations for culturally, linguistically, and educationally diverse populations.

Assessment of Visual Association Memory in Low-Educated, Non-Western Immigrants with the Modified Visual Association Test.

Background: Neuropsychological tests are influenced by culture, language, level of education, and literacy, but there are few cognitive tests of which the applicability in ethnic minority populations has been studied.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Visual Association Test (VAT), a test of visual association memory, in a non-Western, low-educated memory clinic population. Additionally, a modified version of the VAT using colored photographs instead of line drawings was studied (mVAT).