A Retrospective Analysis of the Sentence Writing Component of the Mini Mental State Examination: Cognitive and Affective Aspects

Abstract

Background: One of the components of the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) is the request to write a sentence. We investigated the relationship between the characteristics of the written sentence of the MMSE and the cognitive and affective status of elderly patients. Methods: The characteristics of the sentence were compared to the total MMSE score, sociodemographic characteristics, tests evaluating cognition and affective status, and diagnoses. Results: The number of words was significantly associated with the degree of cognitive impairment, whereas the emotional polarity of sentences and concerns about health were associated with depression. Conclusions: Characteristics of the MMSE sentence may provide important additional information regarding both cognition and affect when assessing older people.

Automated Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease by Capturing Impairments in Multiple Cognitive Domains with Multiple Drawing Tasks

“…We adjusted the total pause duration, total duration, and number of local extrema by dividing each one by the total stroke length in order to make these features less sensitive to differences in the stroke lengths across tasks or individuals. Note that, to obtain a common set of drawing features for all five tasks, we did not include task-specific features such as linguistic features for the sentence-writing task [50,51] or the number of errors for the TMT tasks [52,53], even though previous studies often investigated these features.…”

Comparison of Behavior-Related Features in the MMSE Sentence in Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

“…In the same study, an association between the absence of abstract thinking and lower MMSE scores was found in Vascular Dementia and FTD patients, while the Parkinson’s Disease population had increased frequency of concrete sentences; in general, patients with any kind of dementia displayed poorer abstraction in comparison to the healthy control and MCI groups. In another study performed in a general geriatric clinic, no correlations between the number of words and total MMSE scores were found, but higher scores on the 15-item Geriatric Depression Screening Scale (GDS) were correlated with shorter sentences and negative emotional polarity content (Press et al, 2012 ). Finally, in a study including patients with AD, Vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, and unspecified dementia, a correlation was found between negative emotional polarity in the sentence and lower quality of life (Sniatecki et al, 2017 ).…”

O Que Os Problemas De Escrita Da Frase Do Mini-Mental Podem Nos Dizer? Uma Análise Linguística Dos Problemas De Escrita Das Frases Do Mini-Mental De Idosos Com E Sem Demência

“…Em outro estudo, com 344 pacientes geriátricos, o número de palavras da frase escrita na realização do MEEM teve associação significativa com o diagnóstico cognitivo. As menores frases foram escritas pelos pacientes com demência, enquanto os pacientes sem demência produziram frases mais longas, o que demonstrou uma associação entre o grau de comprometimento cognitivo e o declínio da capacidade de escrever uma frase (PRESS et al, 2012). No Brasil, o estudo de Neri et.…”

“…(2012) realizado com 900 idosos de comunidade avaliou o grau de fluência (número de palavras) e complexidade gramatical (número de ideias) da frase escrita no MEEM, constatando forte influência do grau de escolaridade e da idade no desempenho da frase. Assim, os estudos encontrados na literatura que avaliaram a frase do MEEM, utilizaram uma análise quantitativa (número de palavras e extensão de sentença) (LABARGE et al, 1992;PRESS et al, 2012;BALESTRINO, 2012;NERI et. al., 2012).…”

“…Agrafia ou disgrafia é a perda, parcial ou total, da capacidade de produzir linguagem escrita, relacionada à patologia cerebral(ARDILA, 2012;PRESS, 2012).…”