[The Mini-Mental State Examination as a selected diagnostic test for dementia: a Colombian population study. GENECO] (original) (raw)

Folstein's Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) is widely used as screening test for cognitive impairment. To test a Spanish version of the MMSE in a population of high illiteracy rate. Population-based survey of a stratified random sample of urban and rural residents of five regions of Colombia, followed by neurological and neuropsychological evaluation of suspect cases (phase 2). Dementia was diagnosed using DSM-IV criteria. 1,611 subjects age 50 or older filled out both the WHO Protocol for Epidemiologic Studies of Neurological Disorders and a Spanish version of the MMSE; 55.2% of them had three or less years of schooling; 536 individuals with scores below cutoff points were sent to phase 2. Of the population with satisfactory scores in MMSE 366 (34.0%) were evaluated by neurologists to exclude other neurological conditions. Twelve cases of dementia were diagnosed among individuals with scores below cutoff point and one among subjects with high scores. Age-adjusted prevalence...