Education does not equally influence all the Mini Mental State Examination subscales and items: inferences from a Brazilian community sample

Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria

Jerson Laks²  Evandro Silva Freire Coutinho¹  Washington Junger¹  Heitor Silveira²  Raphael Mouta²  Elienai Maria Rubim Baptista¹  Ana Lucia Barros Contino¹  Maria Lage Barca²  Geir Selbaek¹  Knut Engedal¹  Eliasz Engelhardt² 

[1] ,Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Institute of Psychiatry Centre for Alzheimer's disease and Related DisordersRio de Janeiro RJ ,Brazil

关键词: Aged;    Dementia;    Cognition;    Educational status;    Mental health;    Idosos;    Demência;    Cognição;    Escolaridade;    Saúde mental;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S1516-44462010005000009

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

OBJECTIVE: Mini-Mental State Examination cutoffs have been presented for schooling levels to screen cognitive impairment. However, items may behave differently with regards to education. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of education on MMSE subscales and items. METHOD: Community-dwelling participants aged 65 years or more (n = 990, females = 637, age = 74.1 years, range 65-108) were stratified as illiterate (n = 373), 1-8 (n = 540), 9-12 (n = 63), and more than 12 years of schooling (n = 14) and were screened with MMSE and Pfeffer Functional Activities Questionnaire. To make the Mini-Mental State Examination items comparable, each item was transformed into z scores. Multiple linear regression was used to estimate the effect of schooling on MMSE subs and items controlling for age, sex, and activities of daily life. RESULTS: Temporal and space orientation, attention/calculation, repetition, reading, writing, and drawing scores improved as education increased, but not memory registration, three step command, and naming. Reading and writing displayed the largest coefficients, whereas education exerted no influence on naming and three step command tasks. CONCLUSION: Education does not exert an important effect on naming, three step command, memory registration, and delayed recall. As memory is a key factor for diagnosing dementia, these items could be considered despite education.

【 授权许可】

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