The Association Between Bilingual Animal Naming and Memory Among Bilingual Mexican American Older Adults.

Abstract

Background: Monolingual cognitive assessments are standard for bilinguals; the value of bilingual assessment is unknown. Since declines in animal naming accompany memory declines in dementia, we examined the association between bilingual animal naming and memory among bilingual Mexican American (MA) older adults.

Methods: Bilingual MA (n = 155) completed the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) in a Texas community study. Regressions included HCAP memory score (English) as the outcome and English and Spanish animal naming trials as independent variables; demographics and language dominance were covariates.

Results: English animal naming (b = 0.06, P = 0.004) was more reliably associated with memory than Spanish (b = 0.05, P = 0.06). Considered together, only English (b = 0.05, P = 0.02) was associated with memory, not Spanish (b = 0.01, P = 0.63). Conclusions: Spanish animal naming did not uniquely add to English animal naming in its association with memory among bilingual older MA.