Effects of language of test administration as a predictor of progression to Alzheimer’s disease in bilingual Hispanic Americans: A pilot study

Participants included 18 progressors who were initially cognitively normal or had mild cognitive impairment but later diagnosed with AD, and 27 healthy controls who were cognitively stable for at least two years. During annual neuropsychological evaluations, participants completed the Logical Memory Test in English or Spanish.

Immediate and delayed recall for Story A were assessed via whole story, primacy, and recency scores. Whole story immediate recall provided the highest diagnostic sensitivity. Planned language-specific ANCOVA and ROC curves revealed descriptive patterns of higher diagnostic sensitivity for participants tested in English than for those tested in Spanish, although the language × group interaction was not statistically significant, likely due to limited sample size.