Comparison between the Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment as a Cognitive Screening Tool in Patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:

The number of human immunodeficiency virus-associated neurocognitive disorders has increased, reaching more than 50% of the cases. However, there are currently no substantial data on the screening methods for this disease. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the Mini-Mental State Examination to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients.

METHODS:

This was an observational study comprising 82 human immunodeficiency virus-positive individuals with and without cognitive complaints.

RESULTS:

Positive correlation (p<0.001) between the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test scores was observed, but the mean scores revealed that the Mini-Mental State Examination showed worse performance for trails (p<0.001), cube copying (p<0.001), and clock drawing (p<0.001) than the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.

CONCLUSIONS:

The Mini-Mental State Examination and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment tests should be used concomitantly for the assessment of human immunodeficiency virus-associated neurocognitive disorders, but visuoexecutive and visuospatial dysfunctions are better evaluated using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test than the Mini-Mental State Examination.

Keywords:
Mini-Mental State Examination; Montreal Cognitive Assessment; HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder; Cognition