TY - JOUR
T1 - Human neurobehavioral research methods
T2 - Impact of subject variables
AU - Anger, W. K.
AU - Sizemore, O. J.
AU - Grossmann, S. J.
AU - Glasser, J. A.
AU - Letz, R.
AU - Bowler, R.
N1 - Funding Information:
1This research was supported by a contract to W. Kent Anger from the American Petroleum Institute (API). The article and its conclusions do not necessarily represent the views of the API. The research reported here was conducted in accordance with national and Oregon Health Sciences University institutional guidelines for the protection of human subjects.
PY - 1997/4
Y1 - 1997/4
N2 - Behavioral tests are used in work site and community research to detect and characterize the effects of neurotoxic chemical exposures in human populations, but the influence of subject variables on test performance has not been well studied in normal adult populations. This research sought to evaluate the impact of two variables, education and cultural group, on 18 widely used tests of neurotoxic insult. Behavioral tests from the two consensus neurotoxicity test batteries (established by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) were administered to 715 people aged 26-45 with 0-18 years of education, drawn from European descent United States majority, American Indian, African American, and Latin American populations. Education, cultural group, age, and gender affected the outcome of behavioral tests as revealed by ANOVA, MANOVA, and multiple regression techniques. Education, followed by cultural group, accounted for the most variance in the tests studied. More importantly, years of education and cultural group had 13-25% shared variance on the cognitive tests and highly significant interactions derived from ANOVA tests. This suggests that these factors should be controlled in the design of a study rather than in the statistical analysis. Because these factors can mimic a neurotoxic insult, failure to adequately control and analyze them could lead to inaccurate conclusions about the association between poor performance and neurotoxic insult.
AB - Behavioral tests are used in work site and community research to detect and characterize the effects of neurotoxic chemical exposures in human populations, but the influence of subject variables on test performance has not been well studied in normal adult populations. This research sought to evaluate the impact of two variables, education and cultural group, on 18 widely used tests of neurotoxic insult. Behavioral tests from the two consensus neurotoxicity test batteries (established by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) were administered to 715 people aged 26-45 with 0-18 years of education, drawn from European descent United States majority, American Indian, African American, and Latin American populations. Education, cultural group, age, and gender affected the outcome of behavioral tests as revealed by ANOVA, MANOVA, and multiple regression techniques. Education, followed by cultural group, accounted for the most variance in the tests studied. More importantly, years of education and cultural group had 13-25% shared variance on the cognitive tests and highly significant interactions derived from ANOVA tests. This suggests that these factors should be controlled in the design of a study rather than in the statistical analysis. Because these factors can mimic a neurotoxic insult, failure to adequately control and analyze them could lead to inaccurate conclusions about the association between poor performance and neurotoxic insult.
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U2 - 10.1006/enrs.1997.3707
DO - 10.1006/enrs.1997.3707
M3 - Article
C2 - 9311528
AN - SCOPUS:0031128102
SN - 0013-9351
VL - 73
SP - 18
EP - 41
JO - Environmental Research
JF - Environmental Research
IS - 1-2
ER -