Relationship Between the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status in Patients Referred for a Dementia Evaluation.

Abstract

The current study examined the relationship between the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in a large, heterogeneous sample of patients referred for dementia assessment (N = 495; 37% males, 63% females; M age = 76.8 years, SD = 7.0). The MMSE showed a significant moderate correlation with the RBANS Total Scale score (r = .65). Moderate significant correlations were found between the MMSE and the RBANS indexes (r = .41 to .49). The MMSE demonstrated moderate correlations with RBANS factor scores of .63 for Factor 1 (memory/learning) and .58 for Factor 2 (visuospatial/attention). These correlations suggest that the MMSE is best considered a measure of global cognitive functioning with the strongest correlations between broader measures.