Transposition and Normalization of the Mini-Mental State Examination in French Sign Language.

Abstract

Due to the lack of a validated translation, the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) cannot be used to screen for suspected dementia in deaf people who communicate in French Sign Language (FSL). Taking into consideration the cultural and linguistic features of this specific population, we transposed the validated French version of the MMSE into a version adapted to FSL users: mini-mental state-langue des signes (MMS-LS). The objective of our work was to obtain screening norms for the MMS-LS. The MMS-LS was tested on 194 deaf users of FSL with clinical dementia rating as the gold standard. Healthy and demented participants were seen for two or three consecutive testing sessions at 1-year intervals. The MMS-LS exhibited excellent internal coherence validity (Cronbach's α=.81), unidimensionality (p=.002), and excellent sensitivity (p<.001). The MMS-LS score declined with overt and severe dementia. The percentiles obtained are useful norms for clinical assessment but must be interpreted with precaution due to the small number of participants (related to recruitment constraints) in the present study. In order to facilitate clinical use, the MMS-LS has been made available online, together with an instructions manual and clinical advice useful for improved awareness of the specific nature of this population.