Accuracy and Psychometric Properties of the Brazilian Version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment as a Brief Screening Tool for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease in the Initial Stages in the Elderly.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the applicability and the psychometric properties of Montreal Cognitive Assessment Brazilian Version (MoCA-BR) in the elderly, as well as comparing its accuracy as a tracking test for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) with the accuracy of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). METHOD: A transversal study was performed in 4 reference medical centers that care for the elderly. In all, 229 elderly participated in the study. To select the sample, the clinical history of the elderly, Pfeffer Functional Activities Questionnaire, and neuropsychological battery, apart from MMSE and MoCA-BR cognitive tests, were selected. The elderly were classified into control, MCI, and mild AD groups. RESULTS: There was a significant statistical difference between the MoCA-BR scores of the elderly and the control group, MCI, and mild AD (p < 0.001). The Cronbach alpha for MoCA-BR was 0.77, indicating a good internal consistency. The test-retest reliability was elevated, with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) 0.91. The inter-examiner reliability was excellent (ICC 0.96). The area under curve of the receiver operating characteristics curve was 0.95, when evaluating the ability of MoCA-BR to discriminate between the elderly with cognitive impairment and cognitively healthy elderly. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study show that the Brazilian version of MoCA is a reliable cognitive tracking tool and is accurate for the detection of MCI and early stage AD, with good applicability on the elderly with education equal to or more than 4 years and adequate to discriminate between cognitively healthy elderly, and those with MCI and mild, proving to be superior to MMSE in tracking MCI and similar to this test when tracking mild AD.

Optimal Cutoff Scores for Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment in the Brazilian Version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment among the Elderly.

OBJECTIVE: To propose cutoff scores for the Brazilian version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-BR) stratified by education in order to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the elderly. METHOD: A transversal study in health centers was performed on 159 elderly people with 4-12 years of education and 70 of their peers with over 12 years of schooling. The MoCA-BR cutoff scores for screening cognitive impairment were determined based on an ROC curve analysis. RESULTS: The ROC curve analysis indicated that cutoff scores under 20 were good for screening elderly people with cognitive impairment with more than 12 years of education, and scores under 21 were good for screening those with 4-12 years of education. CONCLUSIONS: MoCA-BR scores under 21 points (after adding 1 point to the elderly with ≤12 years of education) indicate a need to continue the diagnostic investigation with regular follow-ups.

Influence of Age and Education on the Performance of Elderly in the Brazilian Version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Battery.

AIMS: To provide normative data for the Brazilian version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-BR) and to measure the effect of sociodemographic variables on the cognitive performance of cognitively healthy elderly people. METHODS: A sample of 110 cognitively healthy individuals, aged over 65 years, with at least 4 years of schooling were recruited from 3 health care centers for the elderly in Recife, Brazil. The cognitive performance was assessed using MoCA-BR. RESULTS: The average score of these elderly people in the MoCA-BR was 23.2 ± 2.7. Their schooling correlated positively with the cognitive performance, with a Spearman's coefficient of 0.33 (p < 0.001). There was a statistically significant negative correlation between age and the cognitive performance (Spearman's rho = -0.19). The multiple linear regression model with the highest adjusted coefficient of determination was the one that included schooling and age (adjusted R2 = 0.127). CONCLUSIONS: The cognitive performance of healthy elderly was evaluated and was strongly influenced by schooling and, to a lower degree, by age.