Concurrent validity of Spanish-language versions of the Mini-Mental State Examination, Mental Status Questionnaire, Information-Memory-Concentration Test, and Orientation-Memory-Concentration Test: Alzheimer's disease patients and nondemented elderly comparison subjects

Abstract

One-hundred fifty-eight elderly Spanish-speaking U.S. residents (81 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and 77 subjects without dementia) were tested with Spanish-language versions of four brief cognitive assessment instruments: the Mini-Mental State Examination (S-MMSE), the Mental Status Questionnaire (S-MSQ), the Information-Memory-Concentration test (S-IMC), and the Orientation-Memory-Conccntration test (S-OMC). Within-group performances were highly correlated for all four instruments. All tests distinguished between the demented and nondemented groups, but best discrimination was achieved with the S-IMC, which correctly classified 98% of subjects. This version was also the best predictor of functional disability, as measured by impairments in instrumental activities of daily living. Within the normal comparison group, neither gender nor a subject's monolingual/bilingual status affected test performance. These four Spanish-language cognitive screening tasks may aid in the evaluation of dementia among Spanish-speaking patients. (J1NS, 1996, 2, 286–298.)

Criterion-referenced validity of a neuropsychological test battery: Equivalent performance in elderly Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Whites

“…Previous studies have examined average Hispanic-White or English-Spanish differences in neuropsychological tests in community based (La Rue et al, 1999;Rey et al, 1999) and demented samples (Hohl et al, 1999;Loewenstein et al, 1993), and a few studies have compared normal with impaired or demented Spanish speakers (Arnold 628 D. Mungas et al et al, 1998;Campo et al, 2003;Taussig et al, 1996). One study (Mulgrew et al, 1999) examined the relative validity of the Mini-Mental State Examination (Folstein et al, 1975) for detecting cognitive impairment in Hispanics and nonHispanic whites.…”

“…Demented patients were compared not only with healthy high functioning control subjects, as in previous studies (Campo et al, 2003;Taussig et al, 1996), but were compared with CIND and with demographically heterogeneous normals. CIND is by definition intermediate to the poles of normal and dementia, and thus creates a challenge to differenate.…”

The effect of education and occupational complexity on rate of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's patients

“…Women composed 57% of the sample; 78% were English-speaking and 22% were Spanish-speaking. Previously, the Spanish versions of the neuropsychological battery (Taussig et al, 1992) and the MMSE (Taussig et al, 1996) showed no measurable cultural bias and reliably discriminated AD cases from normal controls.…”

Multidimensional effects of acculturation on English-language neuropsychological test performance among HIV+ Caribbean Latinas/os

“…Therefore, acculturation and neuropsychological functioning need to be assessed among other Latina/o subgroups, including those of Caribbean origin (Lopez-Class et al, 2011). Research has shown that factors considered to be proxies of acculturation, such as length of time living in U.S., years of education in the U.S, or language-related variables, such as language preference, English language competence, or bilingualism, are related to both English and Spanish-language neuropsychological test performance (Artiola i Fortuny, Heaton, & Hermosillo, 1998; Berry et al, 2003; Jacobs, et al, 1997a, 1997b; Harris, et al, 1995; Taussig et al, 1996). However, proxy variables provide only an indirect estimate of acculturation (Lopez-Class, González Castro, & Ramirez, 2011).…”