Comparison of the Performance in Two Different Korean Versions of Mini-Mental State Examination: MMSE-KC and K-MMSE / 신경정신의학

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: We compared the scores of the MMSE-KC (Korean version of MMSE in the Korean version of CERAD Assessment Packet) and K-MMSE (Korean MMSE), and analyzed the influences of age, gender, and educational level on the differences between the two. METHODS: We administered the MMSE-KC and K-MMSE simultaneously along with geriatric depression scale (GDS-K) to 733 community-dwelling elderly aged 50 or over in three districts of Suwon. The differences between the MMSE-KC scores and K-MMSE scores were examined by repeated measure ANOVA computing the MMSE for intra-individual factor, age, gender, and educational level as inter-individual factor, and GDS-K score as a covariate. RESULTS: The scores of MMSE-KC and K-MMSE were identical only in the 17.8% of the subjects and the difference between the MMSE-KC score and K-MMSE score were significantly influenced by the educational level of the subjects (F (3,173)=8.21, p0.1), it was highly significant in 'judgement and writing/reading' subscores (F (1,731)=16.35, p<0.001) and its influences were significantly varied by the educational level of the subjects (F (1,731)=20.82, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The MMSE-KC and K-MMSE which were standardized differently are not identical in scores as well as in content, and the difference between the two is greatly influenced by the educational level of the subject. When interpreting or comparing the MMSE scores of the two different versions of Korean MMSE, the comparability of the scores among them observed in this study should be considered.