Effects of demographic characteristics and sensory function on the scores of Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE-K) of elderly persons living in a home for the Aged

Kim, Seong Won; Woo, Sung Sun; Cho, Hong Jun

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The MMSE-K has been used widely to screen cognitive impairment of the elderly in Korea. However, the MMSE-K was validated only for elderly in the 60th and 70th, and did not consider the effect of vision and hearing impairment. So, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of demographic characteristics and sensory function on the scores of MMSE-K of elderly persons living in a home for the aged, who had low educational attainment, and high proportion of old age.
METHODS
The MMSE-K was tested for 163 elderly persons living in a home for the aged in Seoul, by the interviewer who had been taught about the test methods. Vision and hearing were measured by the near vision card (40 cm), and 'whisper test' respectively
RESULTS
Of the 162 subjects, 21 (13%) were excluded due to aphasia, severe vision and hearing impairment, and poor communication. The 141 study subjects (68 male, 73 female) had a mean age of 78.7 years (+/-7.1 years), and a mean MMSE-K score of 19.1 (+/-6.1). The mean score of women, elderly greater than 80 years, elderly with no education, and elderly with vision impairment was less than that of men (p<0.05), elderly below 80 years, elderly with 1 or more years of education (p<0.05), and elderly with no vision impairment (p<0.05), respectively. However, the mean score of elderly with hearing difficulty was not less than that of elderly with normal hearing (p>0.05). In the multiple linear regression analysis with MMSE-K scores as the dependent variable, age (p<0.05), years of education (p<0.05) and vision (p<0.05) were significantly associated with MMSE-K scores, but sex and hearing impairment did not show significant relationship (p>0.05).
CONCLUSION
These findings represent the cross-sectional relationship between MMSE-K performance and education, age, and vision among the institutionalized elderly. So, in using MMSE-K in the institutionalized elderly, we should take these variables into account. And the development of new adjustment methods of the MMSE-K will be needed.