TY - JOUR
T1 - Normative performance on the Brief Smell Identification Test (BSIT) in a multi-ethnic bilingual cohort
T2 - A project FRONTIER study
AU - Menon, Chloe
AU - Westervelt, Holly James
AU - Jahn, Danielle R.
AU - Dressel, Jeffrey A.
AU - O'Bryant, Sid E.
N1 - Funding Information:
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institutes of Health under Award Number L60MD001849, R01AG039389, and & P30AG12300. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. This research was also funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (RD834794) and, in part, by grants from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health (JRG-040 & JRG-149) and the National Academy of Neuropsychology. Project FRONTIER is supported by the F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health and Garrison Institute on Aging. No conflict of interest is present. The authors would additionally like to thank the Project FRONTIER participants and research team. All authors meet the criteria for authorship and contributed to the development of this work, including conception, data collection and analyses, as well as manuscript preparation. C. Menon was responsible for the design of this study, data extraction and analyses, as well as composition of the manuscript. S. O’Bryant, H. Westervelt, D. Jahn, and J. Dressel advised on the research design and analyses, while also contributing to the composition and review of the written product.
PY - 2013/8/1
Y1 - 2013/8/1
N2 - The Brief Smell Identification Test (BSIT) is a commonly used measure of olfactory functioning in elderly populations. Few studies have provided normative data for this measure, and minimal data are available regarding the impact of sociodemographic factors on test scores. This study presents normative data for the BSIT in a sample of English- and Spanish-speaking Hispanic and non-Hispanic Whites. A Rasch analysis was also conducted to identify the items that best discriminated between varying levels of olfactory functioning, as measured by the BSIT. The total sample included 302 older adults seen as part of an ongoing study of rural cognitive aging, Project FRONTIER. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that BSIT scores require adjustment by age and gender, but years of education, ethnicity, and language did not significantly influence BSIT performance. Four items best discriminated between varying levels of smell identification, accounting for 59.44% of total information provided by the measure. However, items did not represent a continuum of difficulty on the BSIT. The results of this study indicate that the BSIT appears to be well-suited for assessing odor identification deficits in older adults of diverse backgrounds, but that fine-tuning of this instrument may be recommended in light of its items difficulty and discrimination parameters. Clinical and empirical implications are discussed.
AB - The Brief Smell Identification Test (BSIT) is a commonly used measure of olfactory functioning in elderly populations. Few studies have provided normative data for this measure, and minimal data are available regarding the impact of sociodemographic factors on test scores. This study presents normative data for the BSIT in a sample of English- and Spanish-speaking Hispanic and non-Hispanic Whites. A Rasch analysis was also conducted to identify the items that best discriminated between varying levels of olfactory functioning, as measured by the BSIT. The total sample included 302 older adults seen as part of an ongoing study of rural cognitive aging, Project FRONTIER. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that BSIT scores require adjustment by age and gender, but years of education, ethnicity, and language did not significantly influence BSIT performance. Four items best discriminated between varying levels of smell identification, accounting for 59.44% of total information provided by the measure. However, items did not represent a continuum of difficulty on the BSIT. The results of this study indicate that the BSIT appears to be well-suited for assessing odor identification deficits in older adults of diverse backgrounds, but that fine-tuning of this instrument may be recommended in light of its items difficulty and discrimination parameters. Clinical and empirical implications are discussed.
KW - Cognition
KW - Geriatrics
KW - Norms
KW - Olfactory functioning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84882431570&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13854046.2013.796406
DO - 10.1080/13854046.2013.796406
M3 - Article
C2 - 23634698
AN - SCOPUS:84882431570
SN - 1385-4046
VL - 27
SP - 946
EP - 961
JO - Clinical Neuropsychologist
JF - Clinical Neuropsychologist
IS - 6
ER -