The validity of the MMSE and SMQ as screening tests for dementia in the elderly general population-- a study of one rural community in Japan

Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2000 Jul-Aug;11(4):193-6. doi: 10.1159/000017236.

Abstract

Objective: To compare the validity of the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Short-Memory Questionnaire (SMQ) as screening tests to detect dementia in the elderly general population.

Subjects: Six hundred and sixty-two subjects and their informants from the elderly general population sample who had completed these tests.

Setting: One rural community survey in Japan.

Method: We used receiver-operating characteristic analysis to compare the performance of the MMSE and the SMQ with the clinical diagnosis of dementia according to DSM-III-R.

Results: The areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of the MMSE and the SMQ were 0.980 (SE = 0.006) and 0.982 (SE = 0.008), respectively. This differed from chance to a highly significant degree for both the MMSE and the SMQ, but the difference between the two scales was not statistically significant.

Conclusion: As screening tests to detect dementia in the elderly general population, the SMQ which is assessed by informants demonstrates a statistically significant discriminating ability as well as the MMSE.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Dementia / diagnosis*
  • Dementia / epidemiology
  • Dementia / psychology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Japan / epidemiology
  • Male
  • Mass Screening / methods*
  • Memory, Short-Term*
  • Mental Status Schedule / standards*
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • ROC Curve
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Rural Population
  • Sampling Studies
  • Statistics, Nonparametric
  • Surveys and Questionnaires / standards*