Analysis of psychometric features of the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment methods

Abstract

This study aim was to analyse selected psychometric features of the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) methods. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was developed to enable earlier detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) relative to familiar multi-domain tests like the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE). Clinicians need to better understand the relationship between MoCA and MMSE scores.The analysis was performed on a sample of 84 geriatric patients. We have found a concurrent validity by calculation of Pearson’s correlation coefficient between the test scores of the MMSE and the MoCA methods (r (84) = 0.77, P < 0.001). Based on the correlation analysis, it may be stated that the MMSE test score is in a very tight positive correlation with the test score of the MoCA. We have also performed reliability analysis of both screening methods by calculation of internal consistency. The internal consistency of the MMSE method was represented by Cronbach’s alpha at the level of 0.78, and the MoCA method at the level of 0.81; those are considered to be optimum values. The MMSE sensitivity was good, and that was at the level = 0.83 with a confidence interval 95 % from 0.62 to 0.95. The MoCA sensitivity was very good, and that was at the level = 0.98 with 95 % of the confidence interval from 0.80 to 0.99. The MMSE specificity was very good, and that was at the level = 0.99 with 95 % of the confidence interval from 0.92 to 0.99. The MoCA specificity was good, and that was at the level = 0.85 with 95 % of the confidence interval from 0.73 to 0.91. We have demonstrated a good internal consistency for both of the methods, and that means these screening methods are stable at the time and they provide reliable measuring of cognitive deficit.