O Mini-Exame do Estado Mental em uma população geral: impacto da escolaridade

• Autor(a) principal: Bertolucci, Paulo Henrique Ferreira [UNIFESP]
• Data de Publicação: 1994
• Outros Autores: Brucki, Sonia Maria Dozzi [UNIFESP], Campacci, Sandra R. [UNIFESP], Juliano, Yara [UNIFESP]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNIFESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0004-282X1994000100001; http://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/42727
• topic: COGNITION; EDUCATIONAL STATUS; NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS; MINI-MENTAL STATE EXAMINATION

To assess the influence of age and education on cognitive performance in our population, 530 adults were interviewed using the MMSE (Mini-Mental Status Examination). Education level, classified as illiterate, elementary and middle (< 8 years) and high (> 8 years), was a significant predictor of performance (p < 0.0001). Nevertheless, the total scores were not significantly different among the age-groups, young (< or = 50 years), middle age 51 to 64 years) and elderly (> or = 65 years). The reference cut-off values were taken from the fifth percent lowest score for each group: illiterate, 13; elementary and middle, 18; and high, 26. When compared to 94 pacients with cognitive impairment, our cut-off values achieved high sensitivity (82.4% for illiterates; 75.6% for elementary and middle; 80% for high) and specificity (97.5% for illiterate; 96.6% for elementary and middle; 95.6% for high educational level). Education-specific reference values for the MMSE are necessary in interpreting individual test results in populations of low educational level, in order to reduce the false positive results.