Socioeconomic status has bearing on the Mini Mental State Examination score among Indian Urban elderly

Abstract

Background: Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) has been used widely for screening of cognitive disorders. It has been validated and adapted in various languages. Corrections have been proposed to rule out the bias in the scoring of MMSE based on education and age. However association of MMSE scores with socioeconomic status (SES)has not been studied. Aim: This study was aimed at evaluating the association of SES and MMSE. Materials and Methods: SES and the MMSE scores of participants more than 55 years of age were determined by trained social workers and clinical psychologists. The SES was determined by SES scale. Education and age bias was corrected using specific cut-off criteria for education and age bias while applying MMSE. The data thus obtained was analyzed using Epi-Info software to find the differences in MMSE positive (cognitive impairment present for the educational status and age) and MMSE negative (cognitive impairment absent for the educational status and age) individuals across different SES. Results: The study included 2,283 participants of whom 652 (28.6%), 1326 (58.1%) and 305 (13.4%) belonged to lower socio economic status (LSES), middle socio economic status (MSES) and upper socio economic status (USES) respectively. The MMSE scores were also compared across the SES. Persons from MSES had higher cognitive impairment when compared with LSES and USES, respectively. Significant difference was found among the two genders on the MMSE scores (more females had cognitive impairment) in only the LSES and not in USES and MSES. Conclusion: The findings suggest putative relationship between cognitive functioning and SESsocioeconomic status amongst the elderly.