Trail Making Test Normative Data for the German Older Population

Abstract

Objective: We provide normative data for the Trail Making Test (TMT)-A and B and the derived scores B - A and B/A, for the German general population aged 57-84 years.

Methods: Data were derived from the third examination of the population-based Heinz Nixdorf Recall study. We excluded participants with a history of dementia or stroke, a depression score above cutoff (CES-D Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale score ≥ 18), or mild cognitive impairment according to a neurocognitive test battery. The normative sample (n = 2,182) was stratified by age, using the interval superposition approach, and by three levels of educational attainment (up to 10 years of schooling; >10 years of schooling; and university degree).

Results: We tabulated test performance scores at percentage rank thresholds 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 75, and 90. In multiple linear regression, TMT-A performance declined by 1 s each year of life, and TMT-B performance by 3 s; educational level had an impact of up to 30 s in TMT-B. TMT-B/A was only weakly associated with age and education. TMT-B and B - A correlated r = 0.96. Completion of the TMT-B within the time limit of 300 s was not achieved by 10.9% of participants >74 years, and especially by those >74 years who were on the lowest educational level (13.9%).

Conclusions: For TMT-A, TMT-B, and B - A, the narrow age categorization and distinction between three educational levels proved meaningful. The 300 s limit for the TMT-B impedes the identification of thresholds for very low performance in this age group and needs reconsideration.

Keywords: Normative data; Older population; Trail Making Test.