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Longitudinal measurement invariance of memory performance and executive functioning in healthy aging

2018; Public Library of Science; Volume: 13; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1371/journal.pone.0204012

1932-6203

Pedro Silva Moreira, Nadine Correia Santos, Teresa Costa Castanho, Liliana Amorim, Carlos Portugal‐Nunes, Nuno Sousa, Patrí­cio Costa,

Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

In this work, we examined the longitudinal measurement invariance of a battery composed of distinct cognitive parameters. A sample of 86 individuals (53.5% females; mean age = 65.73), representative of the Portuguese older population, with respect to sex, age and level of education was assessed twice over an average of two years. By means of a confirmatory factor analysis approach, we tested whether a two-factor solution [corresponding to measures of memory performance (MEM) and executive functioning (EXEC)] was reliable over time. Nested models of longitudinal invariance demonstrated the existence of partial strong invariance over time. In other words, this indicates that there is an equivalence of the factorial structure and factor loadings for all items; this was also observed for the item intercepts for all the items, except for one of the items from the EXEC dimension. Stability coefficients revealed high associations between the dimensions over time and that, whereas there was a significant decline of the MEM across time, this was not observed for the EXEC dimension. These findings reveal that changes in MEM and EXEC scores can be attributed to true changes on these constructs, enabling the use of this battery as a reliable method to study cognitive aging.