[Mini-Mental State Examination: psychometric characteristics in elderly outpatients].
OBJECTIVE
To assess the psychometric characteristics of the Mini-Mental State Examination in elderly outpatients who seek primary health care.


METHODS
A total of 303 subjects (>65 years) underwent comprehensive geriatric assessment with functional tools, including Mini-Mental State Examination. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and ROC curve were calculated.


RESULTS
Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and area under ROC curve were 80.8%, 65.3%, 44.7%, 90.7% and 0.807 respectively (cutoff point =23/24). The best cutoff point for illiterate was 18/19 (sensitivity =73.5%; specificity =73.9%); and for literate was 24/25 (sensitivity =75%; specificity =69.7%).


CONCLUSIONS
While screening elderly outpatients for dementia, schooling must be considered in the choice of the best cutoff point in the Mini-Mental State Examination.
Lourenço
Roberto A
RA
Departamento de Medicina Interna, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
Veras
Renato P
RP
D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010045:Outpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014177:Translations