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Results from previous research on everyday problem solving involving Caucasians suggests that it may be a useful concept in studying cognitive aging in African Americans . The purpose of this investigation was to examine : (1) the factor structure of an everyday problem solving in a sample of African Americans , (2) the internal consistency of everyday problem solving in a sample of African Americans , and (3) the relation ship of problem solving to demographic factors, physical functioning, and measures of fluid ability. The sample included subjects recruited from Baltimore , MD . The sample consisted of 249 community dwelling African - American adults with a mean age of 67 . 8 years (SD = 8.47). Variables included the Everyday Problem Solving Test (EPT), gender , age , education , physical functioning , and inductive reasoning . Everyday problem solving as a latent construct was confirmed and the split half reliability was high (.89). As in previous research , inductive reasoning and physical functioning were related to everyday problem solving abilities . We also found that certain domains of the EPT are more influ enced by demographic factors than others . Our finding suggest that the Everyday Problems Test is appropriate for use with African American samples . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that forced expiratory volume (FEV) is a useful predictor of remaining life in older adults . The present analyses are an attempt to replicate results from a study of Swedish twins which demonstrated substantial heritability of FEV with a sample of middle aged Russian adult twins . Data were collected from 116 pairs of Russian twins (monozygote = 71, dizygotic = 45, mean age = 40.9 years). Phenotypic correlations between FEV , age , gender , height , and cigarette consumption ( in pack years ) were all significant , ranging from - . 72 to . 31 . After the effects of age , gender , height , and smoking were partialled out of FEV , quantitative genetic analyses were conducted . Shared environmental effects were significant , accounting for 47 % of the variance in FEV . Genetic effects , which accounted for about 28 % of the variance , could be dropped from the model without a significant decrease in the fit . These results are discussed in relation to previous research conducted in other countries . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined differences in cognitive performance of African American and European American older adults on cognitive and intellectual measures, and the extent to which literacy status or reading level was useful in explaining these group differences. African American elders performed more poorly than European American elders on 12 of 13 cognitive tests administered, p < .05. After controlling for reading level achievement, differences in performance became nonsignificant for 5 of these 12 tests. Nonetheless, some differences persisted, suggesting that other potential mediators of race differences remain to be explored in future research.