A validity study on the korean mini-mental state examination (K-MMSE) in dementia patients

J Korean Neurol Assoc > Volume 15(2); 1997 > Article

Journal of the Korean Neurological Association 1997;15(2): 300-308.

치매환자들을 대상으로 한 K-MMSE의 타당도연구

강연욱, 나덕렬, 한승혜

삼성서울병원 신경과

A validity study on the korean mini-mental state examination (K-MMSE) in dementia patients

Yeon Wook Kang, M.D., Duk L. Na, M.D., Seung Hae Hahn, M.A.

Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center

Abstract

The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE; Folstein et al., 1975) is a quick and easy measure of cognitive functioning that has been widely used in clinical evaluation and research involving patients with dementia. The present study was conducted to examine the validity of the newly constructed Korean version of the MMSE (K-MMSE) in dementia patients. The K-MMSE was administered to 84 patients with Alzheimer's a disease, 64 patients with vascular dementia, and 23 patients with a diagnosis of pseudo-dementia. The result showed that of the cognitive components of the K-MMSE, Orientation, Attention and Calculaton, Recall, and Visual Construction are impaired in dementia patients. The sensitivities of the K-MMSE in detecting dementia were .70-83. Factor analysis indicated that the multiple cognitive components of the K-MMSE can he explained by one or two factors. The K-MMSE was also highly correlated with another brief measure of cognitive functioning, the Blessed Orientation Memory-Information(r=.78). The result, however, further suggested that the K-MMSE is relatively insensitive to detect the early stage of dementia, causing an increase in false negatives.