The Optimal Short Version of Montreal Cognitive Assessment in Diagnosing Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia.
Tau Ming Liew
PMID 30910550WHAT IT FOUND
The Roalf short MoCA performed similarly to the full 30-point MoCA for detecting mild cognitive impairment and dementia, including in highly educated people.
It may be a 16-point alternative when the full test cannot be given.
Key findings
01Only the Roalf and Wong short MoCA variants had diagnostic accuracy that was not significantly different from the original MoCA for identifying mild cognitive impairment and dementia.
02Only the Roalf variant remained similar to the original MoCA among participants with more than 12 years of education, and at its optimal cut-off of <13 out of 16 it had 87.2% sensitivity and 72.1% specificity.
03All short variants had significantly lower performance than the original MoCA for discriminating dementia from non-dementia, especially among participants with more than 12 years of education.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Participants were volunteers at Alzheimer’s Disease Centers, so the findings may not apply to community or usual clinical settings. Half of the participants had at least 16 years of education, which is higher than many clinical populations; only the Roalf variant stayed similar to the original MoCA among those with more than 12 years. Most dementia diagnoses were Alzheimer’s dementia (69.3%), so the results may not apply to other dementia types. 11.9% of diagnoses were made by single clinicians rather than consensus conference, which may reduce certainty. All short variants had lower performance than the original MoCA for discriminating dementia from non-dementia, especially among participants with more than 12 years of education.
Declared interests
No author conflicts are stated in the supplied text. The article is supported by non-U.S. government research funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat any short MoCA as equivalent to the full MoCA for dementia screening. All short variants had significantly lower performance than the original MoCA when discriminating dementia from non-dementia, especially among participants with more than 12 years of education.