%0 Journal Article
%T Brief cognitive assessment in a UK population sample ¨C distributional properties and the relationship between the MMSE and an extended mental state examination
%A Felicia A Huppert
%A Sara T Cabelli
%A Fiona E Matthews
%A the MRC Cognitive Function and Ageing Study (MRC CFAS)
%J BMC Geriatrics
%D 2005
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2318-5-7
%X The MMSE and the EMSE were administered to over 12,000 participants at the screening stage of the MRC Cognitive Function and Ageing Study (MRC CFAS). MRC CFAS is a multi-centre population-based study in England and Wales with respondents aged 65 years and older.Normative values on the MMSE and EMSE are presented by age group, sex and level of education. There are very large differences between age groups, with smaller differences seen between the sexes and by level of education. The EMSE extends the scores at the high end of the ability range, but is no better than the MMSE at differentiating between dementia and non-dementia.Population-derived norms are valuable for comparing an individual's score to the score that would be expected among the general population, given the individual's specific demographic characteristics.The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was developed almost 30 years ago as a screen for dementia among hospital patients[1]. It remains the most widely used short cognitive test in clinical practice, clinical research, and epidemiological studies [2,3] However, its shortcomings are well known [4-6]. Principal amongst them are (a) very limited coverage of memory function, (b) a ceiling effect, resulting in inability to differentiate moderate from high functioning, and (c) absence of information about some aspects of cognitive function required for dementia diagnosis using internationally agreed criteria (DSM-IV [7]; ICD-10 [8]), namely perception and executive function. There is therefore a need for a short screening test that covers the range of cognitive processes required by diagnostic criteria, avoids the ceiling effect, and has an improved coverage of memory.The Modified Mini-Mental State (3MS) Examination [4] was developed to extend the range of items in the MMSE and avoid ceiling and floor effects. It added eight extra items to the 19 items of the MMSE (date and place of birth, counting backwards from five to one, naming a body part, an ea
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2318/5/7