Cognitive performance on the mini-mental state examination and the montreal cognitive assessment across the healthy adult lifespan.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to compare age-related performance on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) across the adult lifespan in an asymptomatic, presumably normal, sample. BACKGROUND: The MMSE is the most commonly used brief cognitive screening test; however, the MoCA may be better at detecting early cognitive dysfunction. METHODS: We gave the MMSE and MoCA to 254 community-dwelling participants ranging in age from 20 to 89, stratified by decade, and we compared their scores using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. RESULTS: For the total sample, the MMSE and MoCA differed significantly in total scores as well as in visuospatial, language, and memory domains (for all of these scores, P<0.001). Mean MMSE scores declined only modestly across the decades; mean MoCA scores declined more dramatically. There were no consistent domain differences between the MMSE and MoCA during the third and fourth decades; however, significant differences in memory (P<0.05) and language (P<0.001) emerged in the fifth through ninth decades. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the MoCA may be a better detector of age-related decrements in cognitive performance than the MMSE, as shown in this community-dwelling adult population.

An Educational Intervention to Improve the Sleep Behavior and Well-Being of High School Students.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine whether a sleep education intervention improves knowledge of sleep, sleep behaviors, and depression in high school freshmen. METHODS: We recruited student volunteers at a single magnet high school in Los Angeles, California through their health class. Twenty-four freshmen participated and 18 students (17 female, 1 male) completed pre- and postsurveys. Curriculum consisted of 4 hours of after-school interactive lectures emphasizing sleep physiology, benefits of sleep, what impacts sleep, and methods to improve sleep, followed by a 9-week sleep behavior change journal. Pre- and postsurveys measuring both sleep behaviors and knowledge, and a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 depression screening were administered to participants prior to and after the intervention. We used t tests and χ 2 tests to analyze knowledge and behavior change. RESULTS: Subjects improved in average sleep hours per night (preintervention 6.9 hours to postintervention 7.8 hours, P=.0134), and average weekend night bedtime (11:36 pm to 10:54 pm, P=.0307). CONCLUSIONS: This school sleep behavior intervention demonstrated students' average sleep hours per night and weekend bedtime improved after the lecture and sleep journal intervention. This suggests a sleep education intervention may benefit this population. Further studies are needed to demonstrate effectiveness of this education over time, across sexes, and in high-risk students.