B. Schmand et al., WHAT IS A SIGNIFICANT SCORE CHANGE ON THE MINI-MENTAL-STATE-EXAMINATION, International journal of geriatric psychiatry, 10(5), 1995, pp. 411-414
The distribution of change scores of the Mini-Mental State Examination
(MMSE) was assessed in healthy aged subjects after an interval of 1 y
ear. As part of the Amsterdam Study of the Elderly, which is a communi
ty survey on ageing and cognitive decline (N = 4051; age range 65-84),
a subsample of subjects (N = 247) was studied twice. Participants wit
h dementia, other psychiatric disorders or physical disease which migh
t interfere with cognitive testing were excluded. Test-retest reliabil
ity was 0.55 in this group. The distribution of change scores ranged f
rom -9 to +5. From this result the following clinical rule-of-thumb wa
s derived. In an individual patient, and in the absence of other indic
ations of a dementing process, a deterioration in MMSE score must be g
reater than five points after 1 year to be suspect for a genuine cogni
tive decline.