The validity of the MMSE and SMQ as screening tests for dementia in the elderly general population-- a study of one rural community in Japan.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the validity of the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Short-Memory Questionnaire (SMQ) as screening tests to detect dementia in the elderly general population.


METHODS
Six hundred and sixty-two subjects and their informants from the elderly general population sample who had completed these tests.


METHODS
One rural community survey in Japan.


METHODS
We used receiver-operating characteristic analysis to compare the performance of the MMSE and the SMQ with the clinical diagnosis of dementia according to DSM-III-R.


RESULTS
The areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of the MMSE and the SMQ were 0.980 (SE = 0.006) and 0.982 (SE = 0.008), respectively. This differed from chance to a highly significant degree for both the MMSE and the SMQ, but the difference between the two scales was not statistically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
As screening tests to detect dementia in the elderly general population, the SMQ which is assessed by informants demonstrates a statistically significant discriminating ability as well as the MMSE.
Maki
N
N
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Ehime University School of Medicine, Ehime, Japan.
Ikeda
M
M
Hokoishi
K
K
Nebu
A
A
Komori
K
K
Hirono
N
N
Tanabe
H
H
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008609:Mental Status Schedule / Q000592:standards*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012424:Rural Population; D012494:Sampling Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*