Verbal fluency norms in a community population in Hong Kong

Abstract

Category fluency tests are important cognitive and clinical neuropsychological assessments, particularly for patients with frontotemporal impairments like in schizophrenia and dementia. The lack of local Hong Kong Chinese norms together with the growth in the number of Hong Kong immigrants to North America, Canada, and Australia, have increased the need for well-validated normative data for Hong Kong Chinese. This study aimed to provide normative data for healthy Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong Chinese, ranging in age from 16 to 65, on 4 commonly used measures of category fluency—“animal,” “means of transport,” “food,” and “furniture.” A total number of 100 healthy subjects (42 male and 58 females) were recruited in the community. The mean age and educational level of the sample was 32 (SD = 11.76) and 11.31 years (SD = 3.64), respectively. The findings indicate that the category “food” and “animal” had the highest mean number of citations (mean = 21.52, SD = 7.14 for food; mean = 20.07, SD = 5.84 for animal), whereas the category “furniture” and “means of transport” had the lowest mean score (mean = 14.24, SD = 4.79 for furniture; mean = 15, SD = 3.86 for means of transport). Rankings of frequently cited individual items within each category were also presented. The implication of applying this western driven measure in Hong Kong Chinese and psychiatry research is discussed.