Table 1.
Demographic Characteristics, Psychopathology Ratings, Overall Cognitive Scaled Score, and Decisional Capacity Among Patients With Schizophrenia in the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Decades of Life
| Patients Age 40–49 Years (n = 28) | Patients Age 50–59 Years (n = 28) | Patients Age 60–70 Years (n = 14) | F, χ2, or t | p | Significant Pairwise Differences | |
| Age (years) | 45.3 (3.3) | 53.8 (2.8) | 64.6 (4.0) | n/a | ||
| Education (years) | 11.6 (2.8) | 12.2 (2.4) | 12.1 (3.7) | F2,67 = 0.37 | .691a | |
| Gender (% women) | 46.4% | 46.4% | 63.4% | χ2[2] = 1.43 | .490 | |
| Ethnic Background | χ2[8] = 5.80 | .671 | ||||
| Caucasian | 50.0% | 71.4% | 64.3% | |||
| African American | 25.0% | 21.4% | 21.4% | |||
| Latino | 10.7% | 7.1% | 7.1% | |||
| Asian American | 10.7% | 0.0% | 7.1% | |||
| Other | 3.6% | 0.0% | 0.0% | |||
| Age of Onset | 23.0 (8.8) | 26.7 (10.3) | 41.2 (14.4) | F2,60 = 12.50 | < .001 | 60–69 year olds > 40–49 and 50–59 year olds |
| PANSS | ||||||
| Positive subscale total | 15.6 (6.2) | 14.9 (5.7) | 15.4 (5.8) | F2,65 = 0.12 | .890 | |
| Negative subscale total | 14.6 (6.4) | 13.1 (5.4) | 13.5 (5.9) | F2,65 = 0.48 | 624 | |
| General subscale total | 28.4 (8.0) | 26.4 (7.5) | 32.2 (8.7) | F2,65 = 2.51 | .089 | |
| Hamilton Depression Rating Scale | 9.0 (5.8) | 7.4 (4.4) | 11.3 (7.1) | F2,64 = 2.23 | .116 | |
| Birchwood Insight Scale Total | 8.4 (2.3) | 8.1 (3.0) | 8.5 (3.7) | F2,67 = 0.08 | .923 | |
| Mean Neuropsychological z-score | 0.06 (0.79) | 0.12 (0.59) | –0.21 (0.65) | F2,52 = 0.75 | .476 | |
| MacCAT-CR* | ||||||
| Understanding (range 0 to 26) | ||||||
| Trial 1 | 15.9 (5.7) | 18.3 (5.8) | 14.9 (7.2) | χ2[2] = 3.60 | .166 | |
| Trial 2 | 21.8 (4.7) | 22.5 (5.6) | 19.3 (7.4) | χ 2[2] = 2.33 | .312 | |
| Trial 3 | 23.8 (3.4) | 23.8 (5.0) | 20.6 (6.5) | χ 2[2] = 3.43 | .180 | |
| Appreciation (range 0 to 6) | 4.8 (1.7) | 5.0 (1.6) | 3.9 (1.9) | χ 2[2] = 4.17 | .124 | |
| Reasoning (range 0 to 8) | 7.1 (1.7) | 7.3 (1.3) | 6.1 (2.9) | χ 2[2] = 1.47 | .478 | |
| Expression of a Choice (range 0 to 2) | 1.9 (0.4) | 1.9 (0.3) | 1.7 (0.7) | χ 2[2] = 0.88 | .644 |
Note: PANSS = Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale; MacCAT-CR = MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Clinical Research; n/a = not available.
a
The significance values for education, gender, and ethnicity are not fully meaningful as these variables were considered when selecting subjects for inclusion in the younger age groups.
*
Due to skewed distributions, Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare groups on MacCAT-CR scores.