/ Psychological Tests / Cognitive Screening

Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE)

Portuguese version

Guerreiro, M. (1998). Contributo da neuropsicologia para o estudo das Demências [Contribution of neuropsychology to the study of dementia]. (Dissertação de Doutoramento não publicada/PhD thesis). Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa.

Original version

Folstein, M., Folstein, M., & McHugh, P. (1975). Mini-Mental State: A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12(3), 189-198. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3956(75)90026-6

Background and description

The MMSE was developed in the 70’s and his contribute for the screening was unquestionable. The MMSE assuming its position as the most used brief screening test. This test has a common language, allowing the communication between several professions, as psychologists, neurologists, and psychiatrists. The MMSE is widely used in both clinical and research contexts, as well as for several clinical groups besides the cognitive decline.

Assessment Domain: Cognition.

Type of Instrument: Paper-and-pencil test, including oral and performance tasks.

Administration: Individual, 5-10 minutes.

Population: ≥ 25 years old (Adults).

Dimensions

The MMSE assess 6 cognitive domains: orientation; repetition; verbal recall; attention and calculation; language and visual construction.

Studies

The transcultural adaptation for the Portuguese population study was carried by Guerreiro and colleagues (1994; 1998). Since this first adaptation study, the use of the MMSE was widely applied in the Portuguese population. In 2009, Morgado and colleagues updated the normative data of the MMSE. More recently, Freitas and colleagues (2015) carried the most recent update of the MMSE using a sociodemographic stratified and representative sample of the Portuguese population, as well as a clinical validation for the Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) (Freitas et al., 2013), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) (Freitas et al., 2012a) and Vascular Dementia (VD) (Freitas et al., 2012b).

Future research

In continuity of the normative study of Freitas and colleagues (2015; see also, Santana et al., 2016), future studies will consider the establishment of normative data for oldest groups.

Funding

The studies conducted by Freitas and colleagues were supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology; SFRH/BD/38019/2007 and SFRH/BPD/91942/2012, both to Sandra Freitas) and by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation) through the project "Memória, avaliação funcional e qualidade de vida: Estudos de validade e normas para a população portuguesa" (Memory, functional assessment and quality of life: Validation studies and norms for the Portuguese population; Proc. 74569, SDH-22 Neurosciences, PI, Mário R. Simões).

Contacts

Sandra Freitas (sandrafreitas0209@gmail.com)

References

  1. Folstein, M., Folstein, M., & McHugh, P. (1975). Mini-Mental State: A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12(3), 189-198. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3956(75)90026-6
  2. Freitas, S., Simões, M. R., Alves, L., & Santana I. (2015). Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). In M. R. Simões, I. Santana & Grupo de Estudos de Envelhecimento Cerebral e Demência (GEECD) (Eds.), Escalas e testes na demência (3ª ed., Vol.1, pp.18-23) [Scales and tests in Dementia]. Novartis.
  3. Freitas, S., Simões, M. R., Alves, L., & Santana, I. (2013). Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA): Validation Study for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease. Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders, 27(1), 37-43. Doi: 10.1097/WAD.0b013e3182420bf
  4. Freitas, S., Simões, M. R., Alves, L., & Santana, I. (2015). Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE): Normative study for the Portuguese population in a community stratified sample. Applied Neuropsychology: Adults, 22(4), 311-319. https://doi.org/10.1080/23279095.2014.926455
  5. Freitas, S., Simões, M. R., Alves, L., Duro. D., & Santana, I. (2012a). Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA): Validation Study for Frontotemporal Dementia. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 25(3), 146-154. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891988712455235
  6. Freitas, S., Simões, M. R., Alves, L., Vicente, M., & Santana, I. (2012b). Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA): Validation Study for Vascular Dementia. Journal of International Neuropsychology Society, 18(6), 1031-1040. https://doi.org/10.1017/S135561771200077X
  7. Guerreiro, M. (1998). Contributo da neuropsicologia para o estudo das Demências [Contribution of neuropsychology to the study of dementia]. (Dissertação de Doutoramento não publicada/PhD thesis). Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa.
  8. Guerreiro, M., Silva, A. P., Botelho, M., Leitão, O., Castro-Caldas, A., & Garcia, C. (1994). Adaptação à população portuguesa da tradução do Mini Mental State Examination [Adaptation of the Mini Mental State Examination translation to the Portuguese population]. Revista Portuguesa de Neurologia, 1, 9.
  9. Morgado, J., Rocha, C. S., Maruta, C., Guerreiro, M., & Martins, I. P. (2009). Novos valores normativos do Mini-Mental State Examination [New normative values ​​for the Mini-Mental State Examination]. Sinapse, 2(9), 10-16.
  10. Morgado, J., Rocha, C. S., Maruta, C., Guerreiro, M., & Martins, I. P. (2010). Cut-off scores in MMSE: A moving target?. European Journal of Neurology, 17(5), 692-695. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-1331.2009.02907.x
  11. Santana, I., Duro, D., Lemos, R., Costa, V., Simões, M. R. & Freitas, S. (2016). Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE): Avaliação dos novos dados normativos no rastreio e diagnóstico do défice cognitivo [MMSE: New normative data for cognitive impairment screening and diagnosis]. Acta Médica Portuguesa, 29(4), 240-248. https://doi.org/10.20344/amp.6889