Age- and education-adjusted normative data for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in older adults age 70–99

Abstract

The original validation study for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) suggests a cutoff score of 26; however, this may be too stringent for older adults, particularly for those with less education. Given the rapidly increasing number of older adults and associated risk of dementia, this study aims to provide appropriate age- and education-adjusted norms for the MoCA. Data from 205 participants in an ongoing longevity study were used to derive normative data. Individuals were grouped based on age (70-79, 80-89, 90-99) and education level (≤12 Years, 13-15, ≥16 Years). There were significant differences between age and education groups with younger and more educated participants outperforming their counterparts. Forty-six percent of our sample scored below the suggested cutoff of 26. These normative data may provide a more accurate representation of MoCA performance in older adults for specific age and education stratifications.

[P3–284]: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment: Normative Data From a Large Swedish Population‐based Cohort

“…Consistent with previous findings, older age was associated with lower scores [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][31][32][33][34][35]. We found a 1.0-point difference between the youngest (65-75) and oldest (75-85) groups; other studies have reported a difference of 0.6-2.4 points between similar age groups [13,[15][16][17]31].…”

“…We found a 1.0-point difference between the youngest (65-75) and oldest (75-85) groups; other studies have reported a difference of 0.6-2.4 points between similar age groups [13,[15][16][17]31]. Lower level of education was significantly associated with lower scores, correlating with results from other studies [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][31][32][33][34][35].…”

“…Using the cut-off score from the original study, 37.3% of our normative population would have been incorrectly interpreted as cognitively impaired according to our evaluation of the population. The mean score of 26.0 (SD 2.3) was 1.0-4.2 points higher than in other normative studies [13][14][15][16][17][31][32][33], though lower than the average score of 27 for cognitively normal participants in the small original study (n = 90 healthy elderly controls). The very large normative study using data from the Dallas Heart Study (n = 2,653) included participants aged 18-85 [15].…”

“…We found a 1.0-point difference between the youngest (65-75) and oldest (75-85) groups; other studies have reported a difference of 0.6-2.4 points between similar age groups [13,[15][16][17]31]. Lower level of education was significantly associated with lower scores, correlating with results from other studies [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][31][32][33][34][35]. The difference in mean score was 1.4 points between the least and highest educated groups, in agreement with the original suggested method of adding an extra point for low education (≤12 years).…”

“…When interpreting cognitive assessments, it is important to have population-based normative data suitable for the population on which it is being used. Several previous studies on normative data for the MoCA have included age groups below the average age of patients who are being assessed for cognitive impairment (including participants below the age of 45) [11][12][13][14][15], and some studies have derived norms based on a relatively small normal population [13,[16][17][18]. Hence, there is a need for normative data from a large population in a representative age group.…”