Does Bilingualism Influence Neuropsychological Test Performance in Older Adults? A Systematic Review
Applied Neuropsychology: Adult
Celik, S., Kokje, E., et al. (2022).
Applied Neuropsychology: Adult, 29(4), 855-873.
This systematic review investigates the influence of bilingualism on standardized neuropsychological assessments for identifying dementia-related cognitive decline in multilingual adults.
Robert Bosch Foundation (Germany); “People with Dementia in Acute-care Hospitals," Network Aging Research (NAR), Heidelberg University (Germany)
Database inception up to March 24, 2020
Cross-sectional studies; longitudinal studies
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Results indicated weak evidence for a bilingual advantage and an inability to disentangle linguistic variables from patient-related variables for neuropsychological test performance in dementia. Findings suggested, however, that accurate assessment of cognitive abilities considers various factors, such as the following:<ul> <li>the acculturation level of the individual;</li> <li>culturally corrected norms or cross-cultural neuropsychological assessment tools for individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds; and</li> <li>language proficiency. </li></ul>
