Normative Data for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in Greek Older Adults With Subjective Cognitive Decline, Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

Abstract

Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is among the most commonly used screening tools worldwide. Objective: The aim of the study was to provide normative data for the MoCA in a Greek cohort of people older than 60 years who meet criteria for subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or dementia in order to optimize cutoff scores for each diagnostic group. Method: Seven hundred forty-six community-dwelling older adults, visitors of the Day Center of Alzheimer Hellas were randomly chosen. Three hundred seventy-nine of them met the criteria for dementia, 245 for MCI and 122 for SCD. Results: Initial statistical analyses showed that the total MoCA score is not affected by gender ( P = .164), or age ( P = .144) but is affected by educational level ( P < .001). A cutoff score of 23 for low educational level (≤6 years) can distinguish people with SCD from MCI (sensitivity 71.4%, specificity 84.2%), while 26 is the cutoff score for middle educational level (7-12 years; sensitivity 73.2%, specificity 67.0%) and high educational level (≥13 years; sensitivity 77.6%, specificity 74.7%). Montreal Cognitive Assessment can discriminate older adults with SCD from dementia, with a cutoff score of 20 for low educational level (sensitivity 100%, specificity 92.3%) and a cutoff score 23 for middle educational level (sensitivity 97.6%, specificity 92.7%) and high educational level (sensitivity 98.5%, specificity 100%). Conclusion: Montreal Cognitive Assessment is not affected by age or gender but is affected by the educational level. The discriminant potential of MoCA between SCD and MCI is good, while the discrimination of SCD from dementia is excellent.

Exergaming improves functional fitness in MCI patients. Does the APOE genotype moderate the outcome?

“…The analysis which was carried out based on the presence of the APOEε4 allele, a well-known risk factor for ΑD, showed similar improvement of the functional fitness variables in ε4-carriers and non-ε4-carriers of the Active group. These findings deviate from what is known so far regarding the questionable benefit of cognitive or combined exercise on the MCI APOEε4-carriers cognitive performance has been shown [24] . On the other hand, Passive non-ε4-carriers improved only in one task whereas Passive ε4carriers did not improve at all.…”

Influence of Social and Demographic Factors on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) Test in Rural Population of North-Eastern Greece

“…Our study aimed to add more clinical value in the previous studies [ 13 , 14 ] conducted in Greece about MoCA’s utility in clinical practice, by providing data mainly from a rural population of Northern eastern Greece, recruiting the study under a strict diagnostic protocol.…”

“…The sample of the study consisted of participants in urban centers. The second study, in 2019 [ 14 ], dealt with individuals who mentioned subjective cognitive complaints, people with MCI, and demented patients. The participants of this research were adults over 60 years of age from the urban city of Thessaloniki, a city in Northern Greece.…”

Is the Discrimination of Subjective Cognitive Decline from Cognitively Healthy Adulthood and Mild Cognitive Impairment Possible? A Pilot Study Utilizing the R4Alz Battery

“…In our study, our results showed that all the R4Alz subtasks are free of education and gender effects, except for the WM component of short-term store, which seems to be affected by gender. As far as the gender effects on cognitive performance is concerned, there is controversy, with some studies indicating that gender does not usually affect the performance on cognitive tests [17,39], while others support the idea that gender differences in favor of males is a common finding and specifically in cognitive areas of verbal and visual spatial abilities [40][41][42]. These differences that are noticed among the genders in visual-spatial abilities reflect differences on the strategies that the two genders use [43].…”

“…Currently, besides the fact that several neuropsychological tests were developed to capture as soon as possible cognitive decline related to AD, they are usually affected either from the means of the test administration (e.g., tablets or PCs, that older adults are not familiar to their use) [16], or they are education dependent [17]. Moreover, it seems that they are not able to differentiate between cognitively healthy lifespan development and SCD [18].…”