title: Validation of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in Spanish as a screening tool for mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia in patients over 65 years old in Bogotá, Colombia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was developed as a simple screening tool for cognitive impairment. This study is the first validation in Latin America of the MoCA in Spanish (MoCA-S), which was developed in Colombia (South America).
  
  
  METHODS
  Aiming to perform the first validation of the MoCA-S, we developed a study of concordance by conformity to assess the MoCA-S compared with diagnostic consensus by interdisciplinary assessment in the Memory Clinic (the best diagnostic method available) and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the MoCA-S. A total of 193 subjects were evaluated, 109 of whom were patients, including 26 who met the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) clinical criteria, based on neuropsychological testing, and 83 who had mild dementia (MD). The remaining 84 participants were healthy subjects from the community.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The psychometric evaluation of the MoCA-S was appropriate. Using a cutoff score of ≥ 23, the MoCA had sensitivities of 76.0% to detect MCI and 92.7% to detect MD and a specificity of 79.8%. The percentage of patients clearly labeled by the MoCA-S was 85%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The MoCA-S is a valid screening tool and is useful for identifying MCI and MD in Colombia. The MoCA-S is valid and adequate for application in Colombia with good internal consistency, inter-observer reliability, and content validity. However, the average educational level was high in this study; thus, caution should be exercised when extrapolating these results to individuals with lower educational levels.
authors.affiliation: Neurosciences Department, Hospital San Ignacio, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá D.C., Colombia.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gil
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ruiz de Sánchez
authors.forename: Fabián
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gil
authors.forename: Sara Julieta
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: Felipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pretelt Burgos
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003105:Colombia; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; MoCA-S; dementia; memory disorders; mild cognitive impairment; neuropsychological test; validation studies