A Normative Study of the Digit Span in an Educationally Diverse Elderly Population

Objective-The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of demographic variables on Digit Span test (DS) performance in an educationally diverse elderly population and to provide normative information. Methods-The DS was administered to 784 community-dwelling volunteers aged 60–90 years with an educational history of from zero to 25 years of full-time education. People with serious neurological, medical and psychiatric disorders (including dementia) were excluded. Results-Age, education and gender were found to be significantly associated with performance on the DS. Based on the results obtained, DS norms were stratified by age (2 strata), education (3 strata), and gender (2 strata). Conclusion-Our results on DS performance suggest that both attention and working memory are influenced by age, education and gender. The present study provides reasonably comprehensive normative information on the DS for an educationally diverse elderly population.