montreal cognitive assessment moca test for dementia

MONTREAL COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT MOCA TEST FOR DEMENTIA MANUAL

The purpose of this study was to compare the screening ability of the MoCA with that of the MMSE for detecting dementia in a community-based population. Thus, the conclusions reported to date remain obscure. To decide which is best (i.e., diagnosed by physicians according to DSM-IV criteria and community-based samples) is difficult.

MONTREAL COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT MOCA TEST FOR DEMENTIA MANUAL

Some studies demonstrated their findings in the community, but did not choose a gold standard of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). In some hospital-based research, the gold standards were the neuropsychological tests. Some researchers, however, have indicated that the MoCA was not superior to the MMSE for assessing patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Numerous studies have validated the cognitive screening ability between the MoCA and MMSE, showing that the MoCA is a more useful screening instrument than the MMSE for detecting dementia. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a new instrument for detecting mild cognitive dysfunction with superior sensitivity and can be completed in 10 minutes by clinicians. The MMSE has been broadly applied to assess cognitive function, but it is insufficient and highly influenced by education. Ĭognitive function can be measured using several instruments, such as the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale, the Global Deterioration Scale, and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Detecting moderate cognitive dysfunction early could decrease the risk factors associated with vascular events, resulting in the prevention of dementia. The prevalence of dementia increases rapidly with age and leads to a burden on public health.

The population is rapidly aging worldwide. Our study determined a higher predictive ability in the MoCA than in the MMSE for diagnosing dementia according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria in a community-based sample with a broader range of education level. In general, the MoCA yielded higher AUCs (0.891) with favorable sensitivity (78 %) and excellent specificity (94 %) compared with the MMSE in differentiating the participants with and without dementia in either the total sample or all subgroups. The 276 participants had a mean age of 67.9 ± 6.1 years and mean education duration of 11.4 ± 4.0 years. The receiver operating characteristic curve method and area under curve were performed to assess the predictive ability for diagnosing dementia. All of the participants were administered face-to-face interview questionnaires and MoCA and MMSE examinations.

MethodsĪ total of 276 people aged 60 years or older were enrolled. We compared the predictive ability of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to diagnose dementia in a community-based study.

Montreal cognitive assessment moca test for dementia