A brief screening tool used to assess cognitive function and detect cognitive impairment. It quickly evaluates an individual’s cognitive abilities, especially in the context of aging or suspected neurological disorders.
Procedure
Each of the six items contain five questions or tasks, and are graded out of five for each completion.
- Orientation: assess the patient’s awareness of person, place, time, and situation.
- Person: the patient knows their and significant others’ names and faces.
- Place: the patient knows and understands where they are.
- Time: the patient knows what date, day of the week, and/or season it is (if applicable).
- Situation: the patient knows why they are at the healthcare facility or undergoing examination.
- Registration: the ability to memorize and recall a short list of words e.g. “Apple”, “Orange”, “Banana” i.e. a 3-word recall test.
- Attention and Calculation: tasks that evaluate the ability of the patient to focus attention and perform basic calculations.
- Recall: the ability to remember then previously mentioned list of words.
- Language: evaluation of language skills e.g. naming objects, following commands (verbal and written), and spontaneous writing.
- Visual-Spatial Skills: assessing visual perception and copying simple diagrams.
Scoring
The maximum score for the MMSE is 30. Any score below 24 may be considered abnormal and indicate possible cognitive impairment.
| Score | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| 23 - 30 | ”Normal” |
| 20 - 23 | Mild cognitive impairment or possible early stage/mild DAT |
| 10 - 19 | Middle-stage/Moderate DAT |
| 0 - 9 | Late-stage/Severe DAT |