Conversational cohesion patterns in men and women with Alzheimer's disease: a longitudinal study.

The use of cohesion devices in conversations was examined in 60 individuals (31 women, 29 men) with early to midstage Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 47 non-demented elderly (NE) (27 women, 20 men). AD individuals produced more referent errors than NE, although AD and NE subjects otherwise demonstrated similar use of cohesion devices. AD women showed more frequent use of two elliptical devices (clause omission and word omission) compared with AD men and NE men and women. A subset of 23 AD subjects (13 women, 10 men) who completed four data collections (entry, 6, 12 and 18 months) was followed longitudinally. They demonstrated a significant decline in the number of ellipses and conjunctions at 18 months post-entry. As AD subjects produced fewer and shorter utterances across time, their use of all cohesive devices declined. No gender differences were found over time. Although referencing errors differentiated early to midstage AD from NE, conversational discourse tasks alone may have limited clinical value to assess and monitor communication competence.

Gender differences in language of AD patients: a longitudinal study.

We examined gender differences in probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients on language measures at four data collections (entry, 6, 12, and 18 months) and a normal elderly (NE) comparison group at entry and 18 months. Comparison of gender differences in language abilities of 60 (29 men, 31 women) early (Clinical Dementia Ratings I and II) AD subjects at entry revealed significant effects for gender on the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) but not on the Word Fluency Test, shortened Token Test, or modified Reporter's Test. The 37 subjects (18 men, 19 women) who completed less than four data collection sessions compared with the 23 subjects (11 men, 12 women) who completed all four sessions differed on education and Reporter's Test scores. Longitudinal analysis of measures showed that gender differences persisted for the BNT and PPVT-R and that time differences were found on all measures. Gender differences remained after correcting for age, education, duration of illness, and mental status. We found no differences for the NE comparison group for gender or time. All AD subject trends were downward, suggesting that (1) language is affected over time in AD, (2) both men and women decline at similar rates, and (3) language abilities of women are more severely impaired at all time points.