CORRELATION BETWEEN MONTREAL COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT AND MINI-COG TO ASSESS MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT IN OLDER ADULT POPULATION

N. Kumar S.¹, B.V. Hinduja¹

¹Ramaiah Medical College, Department of Physiotherapy, Bangalore, India

Background: Cognitive impairment is emerging as a major risk factor for dementia and may lead to functional problems in older population. According to the World health organization (WHO), older people face special physical and mental health challenges which need to be recognized.Cognitive decline is normal physiological aging, but everyone does not undergo cognitive impairment. The cognitive impairment will be started as MCI and can progress to dementia and Alzheimer dementia. MCI is the transitional stage from normal cognition to dementia. Early detection of MCI helps both patients and clinicians to discuss the concerns about cognition and for further evaluation. Screening tests play a vital role to assess MCI, thus the scales should be sensitive and specific in assessing MCI. MoCA considered being gold standard with 100% sensitivity and specificity whereas Mini-Cog with 99% sensitivity and 93% specificity.

Purpose: Physiotherapy involves motor or sensory learning, for which there is not only the learning of muscle or movement control but the re-acquisition of the knowledge and skills needed for the patient to move adequately in changing the environment. Early identification of cognitive problems allows clinicians and patients to discuss any new or ongoing concerns about cognition or refer for further evaluation. Therefore we aimed to correlate MoCA and Mini-Cog to assess MCI in older adult population which should be considered as alternate in assessing MCI in an older adult population.

Methods: The present study was an observational study, which includes a sample of 29 older adults of more than 60 years of age. 29 participants have recruited based on the inclusion criteria. Both the scales were clearly explained and given to the participants with a time gap of 24 hours between both scales. Total scoring of MoCA and Mini-Cog across all the participants were analysed using descriptive analysis. Correlation of the scores of MoCA and Mini-Cog was analysed using bi-variant analysis.

Results: Descriptive statistical analysis was taken of total scores of the MoCA and Mini-Cog for older adult participants. Results were expressed in terms of mean and standard deviation (MoCA 24.6± 2.97; Mini cog 4.21 ± 1.04). Pearson’s correlation was carried out with a significance value of (p ≤ 0.001).A cut off value MoCA ≤ 24 and Mini-Cog ≤ 3 helps to capture MCI. Mini-Cog and MoCA were both similar for MCI cases showing a significant positive correlation in both.As the study was aimed at correlating MoCA and Mini-Cog to assess MCI, there was strong correlation (r= 0.57 at significance ≤0.001) found between the two scales.

Conclusions: It is concluded that there is a significant correlation between MoCA and Mini-Cog with p-value ≤0.001.There is a correlation between Mini-Cog and MoCA to assess MCI in an older adult population.

Implications: Correlation was found to be strongly positive between MoCA and Mini-cog Scales.
This study recommends that Mini-Cog can also be used in clinical set-ups to assess mild cognitive impairments in older adult population

Funding acknowledgements: no funding was availed for this study

Keywords:
Mild Cognitive Impairment
Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)
Mini-cog scale

Topics:
Older people

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Ramaiah Medical College

Committee: Ramaiah Medical College, Ethical Committee

Ethics number: MEU-PT/EC/04/2018