Mini-Mental State Examination - Czech Normative Study

Aim: The aim of this normative study of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) - a neuropsychological method to screen cognitive status and disorders - is to confirm international findings on the effects of age and education on MMSE scores and to obtain normative data for the Czech older population. Sample and methods:The sample consisted of 540 adults of 60 plus years of age meeting the inclusion criteria and without suspected cognitive disorder (based on anamnesis and neuropsychological assessment) from 12 regions of the Czech Republic. The sample was divided into four groups according to their age (younger 60-74, older 75+, and education (lower, higher). Men to women ratio in the sample was 1: 1. Results: We found a significant effect of age (Pearson r = -0.308) and education (Cohen's d = 0.43; both p < 0.001) on MMSE score. The lowest scores were obtained by older, less educated individuals (MMSE 26.88; +/- 1 SD 24.27-28.48), the highest scores were obtained by younger, more educated individuals (MMSE 28.60; +/- 1 SD 26.83-29.62). Conclusion: We confirmed correlations between MMSE scores and age and education in older, cognitively healthy persons. These results necessitate further investigation of the MMSE clinical utility to determine the cut-off scores for dementia due to different neurodegenerative diseases. The study provides the first normative data from a large sample of the Czech population according to their age and education.