Validity and Reliability of the Spanish Version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) for the Detection of Cognitive Impairment in Mexico.

OBJECTIVE To establish the validity and reliability of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in Spanish (MoCA-S) to identify mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in the Mexican elderly population.

MATERIAL AND METHODS 168 participants from a memory clinic in Mexico City were enrolled and divided into 3 groups: 59 cognitively healthy (CHG), 52 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (DSM-5 criteria) and 57 with dementia (NINCDS-ADRDA criteria). The MoCA-S and Mini-Mental State Evaluation (MMSE) were applied at baseline and during the last months to establish intra-observer reliability. ROC curves and a multinomial regression model were constructed to evaluate the effect of age and education on MoCA-S performance.

RESULTS The mean age of the participants was 76±8.1 years and the education rate was 10.7±5.2. The MoCA-S scores by group were: CHG, 27.3±1.9; MCI, 22.9±2.9; and dementia, 13.7±4.9 (p<0.001). The reliability of the MoCA-S was 0.89 and the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.955. Sensitivity was 80% and specificity was 75%, with a cut-off point of 26 points for MCI (area under the curve, 0.886; p<0.001). For the dementia group, the sensitivity was 98% and specificity was 93%, with a cut-off point of 24points (area under the curve, 0.998; p<0.001). The multinomial regression showed no association with education and age for both the MCI and dementia groups.

CONCLUSIONS The MoCA-S is a valid and reliable instrument for MCI and dementia screening in the Mexican population, even after adjusting for age and education.