Background: The MMSE is one of the most widely used tests for the detection of dementia and cognitive impairment, however, cut-off points differ between countries.
Objective: To generate MMSE cut-off scores for the detection of Alzheimer’s disease in Ecuadorian population aged 55 to 85 years.
Methods: 390 subjects were evaluated, 76 had a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. The level of dementia, functional autonomy, depression levels, sociodemographic and clinical variables of interest were measured. A regression model was performed to adjust the MMSE scores for the estimated values. The results were corrected using a multiple regression model. Cut-off points were obtained by ROC curve analysis.
Results: The variables Grade (T=5.2, p<0.001) and Age range (T=-7.95, p<0.001) were the only variables that had an effect on MMSE scores of 22% of the variance (R2 adjRadj2 =0.22). An education-adjusted cut-off point of 22.81 was obtained with a sensitivity of 0.97 and a specificity of 0.88.
Conclusion: This information may increase the accuracy in the use and interpretation of the MMSE in the Ecuadorian population.
