title: Montreal Cognitive Assessment: influence of sociodemographic and health variables.
abstract: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a brief cognitive instrument for screening milder forms of cognitive impairment. The present study aimed to analyze the influence of sociodemographic (age, gender, educational level, marital and employment status, geographic region, geographic localization, and residence area) and health variables (subjective memory complaints of the participant and evaluated by the informant, depressive symptoms, and family history of dementia) on the participants' performance on the MoCA. The investigation was carried out in a Portuguese community-based sample of 650 cognitively healthy adults, who were representative of the distribution observed in the Portuguese population. Educational level and age significantly contributed to the prediction of the MoCA scores, explaining 49% of the variance. Regarding health variables, only the subjective memory complaints of the participant showed a small contribution (9%) to the variance on the MoCA scores. This study contributes a useful approach to understanding MoCA performance, stressing the great impact of education and age on scores.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação do Núcleo de Estudos e Intervenção Cognitivo Comportamental, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal. sandrafreitas0209@gmail.com
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Freitas
authors.forename: Mário R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Simões
authors.forename: Lara
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Santana
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D011174:Portugal; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic