Background:

Cognitive screening tools are useful in the clinical and research setting. MiniMental (MMSE) is one of the most used instruments in Colombia, the objective of this work is to determine its performance against the new criteria for the diagnosis of cognitive disorder (DSM-5).

Materials and methods:

Diagnostic test study, assembled in a Colombian cohort, we evaluated a consecutive sample of 200 participants older than 50 years (66.5,+/-8.86) that represented the whole spectrum of the condition of interest, the index test (MMSE) was compared with the clinical reference standard (consensus diagnosis and classification by criteria DSM-5).

Results:

For mild cognitive impairment (MCI), the diagnostic performance of MMSE was: Sensitivity 45.3% (95% CI 33.7 to 57.4), specificity 96.9% (95% CI 91.4 to 99.0) and 76.9% accuracy (95% CI 69.5 to 82.4) at a cut-off point of 26 and, for major cognitive disorder (MCD) was: Sensitivity 76.32% (95% CI 60.8-87.0) and specificity 97.53% (95% CI 93.8-99.0) at the cut-off point of 24.

Conclusions:

MMSE is a valid alternative for the diagnosis of MCD, however it has limited validity for the detection of MCI, so new tools for the purpose of screening of MCI should be considered.