A Comparison of Item Characteristics and Test Information Between the K-MMSE~2:SV and K-MMSE.

ABSTRACT

Background and Purpose: The Korean-Mini Mental State Examination, 2nd edition (K-MMSE~2) was recently released. This study aimed to determine whether the K-MMSE~2 Standard Version (K-MMSE~2SV) had the same test characteristics as the K-MMSE. Methods: A total of 1,514 healthy community-based participants aged 19 to 90 years were administered the K-MMSE~2SV Blue Form along with the language items from the K-MMSE. The item and test characteristics and test information for the K-MMSE~2SV and K-MMSE were compared using Item Response Theory analysis. Results: Item discriminations for the K-MMSE~2SV and K-MMSE were above the moderate range for all items except Recall. Most of the items on the K-MMSE~2SV and K-MMSE had item category difficulty in the very easy or easy range. The test information curve (TIC) showed that the K-MMSE~2SV and K-MMSE provide almost the same amount of information (27.86 vs. 28.44), with both tests providing the most information at an ability level of -1.57. The generalizability (G) coefficient for the K-MMSE~2SV and K-MMSE was 0.99. Conclusions: These results indicate that the K-MMSE~2SV and K-MMSE are equally optimal tests for screening for mild cognitive impairment and early dementia. Given that the amount of test information provided by the two tests was almost identical, the shapes of the TICs were very similar, and the G coefficient was close to 1, we can conclude that the K-MMSE and K-MMSE~2SV are equivalent tests.