The Modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status is More Predictive of Memory Abilities Than the Mini-Mental State Examination.
Although not as popular as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (mTICS) has some distinct advantages when screening cognitive functioning in older adults. The current study compared these 2 cognitive screening measures in their ability to predict performance on a memory composite (ie, delayed recall of verbal and visual information) in a cohort of 121 community-dwelling older adults, both at baseline and after 1 year. Both the MMSE and the mTICS significantly correlated with the memory composite at baseline (r's of .41 and .62, respectively) and at 1 year (r's of .36 and .50, respectively). At baseline, stepwise linear regression indicated that the mTICS and gender best predicted the memory composite score (R (2) = .45, P < .001), and the MMSE and other demographic variables did not significantly improve the prediction. At 1 year, the results were very similar. Despite its lesser popularity, the mTICS may be a more attractive option when screening for cognitive abilities in this age range.
Department of Neurology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA kevin.duff@hsc.utah.edu.
Kevin
K
Duff
Department of Neurology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Danielle
D
Tometich
Department of Neurology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Kathryn
K
Dennett
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013689:Telephone
cognitive screening; geriatrics; memory