The effect of test anxiety on Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE): examining the role of age and basic biomarkers related to cognitive aging

Abstract

The sample was consisted of 60 persons aged 55 years and over. At first, participants were asked to answer a series of questions related to individualdemographic factors and whether they had a diagnosed hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, or/and diabetes. Then, they were asked to respond to an inventory tapping trait test anxiety generally felt before, during and after an examination of their cognitive abilities. Τhey were also examined via the MMSE. The statistical analyses of the data gathered, showed that test anxiety affects MMSE performance.Specifically, it was found that from the two basic dimensions of test anxiety only emotionality has a direct negative effect on MMSE performance, while worry has not. Age and the biomarker "diabetes" were also found to influence negatively MMSE performance. However, their effects on MMSE performance were direct and not indirect, through test anxiety. Indeed, diabetes directly affects both MMSE performance and emotionality, eliminating in this way the effect of emotionality on MMSE performance.