MMSE, GDS and the five-digit test: Comparative analysis within a voluntary population from Monterrey, Nuevo León, México (Memory Screening Week 2010, CREAM)

Due to the increasing concern from Mexican population about more frequent memory problems, the Regional Center for the study of aging (CREAM from the Spanish translation) performs the “Memory Screening Week” every year since 2006, following the recommendations of the “National Memory Screening Day” from the “ Alzheimer's Foundation of America.” During “Memory Screening Week 2010,” the following tests were used: “mini-mental state examination” (MMSE), “geriatric depression scale” (GDS) and “five digit test” (FDT) (by Manuel Sedo), due to the usefulness of the MMSE and GDS for the screening of cognitive issues and the most recent findings about the FDT as a sensitive instrument. The purpose of this study is to establish the correlation between MMSE, GDS and FDT. An invitation for the screening was made to all population over 40 years of age. 30 evaluators were trained: 15 physicians to perform a questionnaire based on the NIA - Alzheimer's Association diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment and 15 psychologists to apply MMSE, GDS and FDT. During the evaluation, all the subjects were interviewed at the medical station, then they answered the tests at the psychological module. Follow-up recommendations were given according to their results. An analysis was performed, including the mean, the standard deviation and The Pearson correlation coefficient. There were 310 evaluations from subjects between 40 - 89 Years old (Mean 61.15, SD 10.80); 256 of them were women and 54 were men. Average education level from sample was 10.05 years (SD 5.01). 266 normal cognition cases were indentified, 31 MCI and 13 dementia. MMSE average score from sample was 26.18 (SD 3.49), GDS 3.15 (SD 3.23), FDT inhibition 15.04 (SD 29.74) and FDT flexibility 44.45 (SD 91.16). Correlation results are shown on Table 1. we observed, as in a previous work, that the population with a higher cognitive performance presented less depressive symptoms. Furthermore, we found that low cognitive performance subjects had inhibition and flexibility problems. However, it would be important to obtain the comparative analysis of the three groups (normal, MCI And dementia) and to enlarge the MCI and dementia sample.