THE EFFECT OF DEMOGRAPHIC AND HEALTH VARIABLES ON A MODIFIED FORM OF MINI-MENTAL-STATE-EXAMINATION SCORES IN NIGERIAN ELDERLY COMMUNITY RESIDENTS

A culturally relevant form of the Mini-Mental State Examination was administered to 502 persons aged 60 years and over living in three locations representing rural and urban settings in southwestern Nigeria. Multivariate statistical methods show that variables like sex, age, education and self-assessed health affect the scores on MMSE. The coefficient alpha for the instrument was low for those with less than complete primary education, but for those with full primary education or more, it gave a value similar to those obtained in some studies in western countries.