The purpose of this study was to examine how a specific
informant-based measure of everyday functioning, the Informant
Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE; Jorm & Korten, 1988) relates to cognition and
structural neuroimaging in a large multicultural, multilingual sample
of Caucasians and Hispanics. Cognitive variables included selected
subtests from the Spanish and English Neuropsychological Assessment
Scales (SENAS; Mungas et al., 2000): Verbal
Memory, Object Naming, Verbal Attention Span, Verbal Conceptual
Thinking, and Pattern Recognition. The association between the IQCODE
and selected neuroimaging variables, hippocampal volume and white
matter hyperintensity, was evaluated in a subsample of English- and
Spanish-speaking Hispanic individuals. The cognitive variables showed
strong bivariate relationships with the IQCODE, although only Verbal
Memory and Object Naming independently predicted level of functional
ability. Verbal Memory was the strongest predictor of functional
status, accounting for 23% of the variance in the IQCODE. White matter
hyperintensity was also independently related to the IQCODE, accounting
for 18% of the variance. Hippocampal volume was related to the IQCODE
in a simple bivariate analysis, but was not an independent predictor of
reported functional status after controlling for age. The relationships
between cognitive variables and functional status, as well as between
the imaging variables and the IQCODE, did not differ across
language-ethnic groups. (JINS, 2004, 10,
342–354.)