Table 1.
Distribution of Unimpaired Participants and Persons with Aphasia (PWA) by Age and Education Subgroups
| Male | Female | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unimpaired Participants | |||||
| Age (in year) | Low Education | High Education | Low Education | High Education | Sub-total |
| 18 – 39 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 47 |
| 40 – 59 | 15 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 48 |
| 60 or above | 11 | 15 | 22 | 6 | 54 |
| Sub-total | 38 | 36 | 44 | 31 | (149) |
| Persons with Aphasia | |||||
| 18 – 39 | 3 (1 Wernicke’s + 1 Broca’s + 1 Global) | 2 (1 Transcortical motor + 1 Isolation) | 2 (2 Anomic) | 1 (1 Transcortical motor) | 8 |
| 40 – 59 | 47 (26 Anomic + 4 Transcortical sensory + 11 Broca’s + 5 Transcortical motor + 1 Global) | 5 (4 Anomic + 1 Transcortical sensory) | 15 (11 Anomic + 1 Broca’s + 3 Transcortical motor) | 1 (1 Transcortical motor) | 68 |
| 60 or above | 10 (5 Anomic + 1 Transcortical sensory + 1 Broca’s + 3 Transcortical motor) | 3 (3 Anomic) | 10 (5 Anomic + 1 Wernicke’s + 2 Broca’s + 1 Transcortical motor + 1 Isolation) | 6 (4 Anomic + 1 Broca’s + 1 Global) | 29 |
| Sub-total | 60 | 10 | 27 | 8 | (105) |
Note. Higher or lower than secondary school for the two younger groups, and higher or low than primary school for the oldest group, i.e., at least 14 years as higher education for the two younger groups and at least 7 years as higher education for the elderly group. The high illiteracy rate in native Cantonese elderly speakers in Hong Kong (and in Mainland China as well as many Chinese oversea communities) limited our application of the same high-low education criterion for all participant groups. According to Hong Kong SAR Government (2003), over half of the Hong Kong population during 1970s had only attained primary school education; the percentage of was even higher prior to that. Furthermore, over the decades, many jobs now requiring tertiary education qualification previously only required secondary school education. We believe that education and working experience could associate with language abilities of our elderly group participants. This had led us to draw this equivalence (of 7 years of education for the oldest group is comparable to 14 years of education for the two younger groups, in terms of language abilities).