Defining Cut-off Scores for MMSE in an Educated and Illiterate Arabic Speaking Egyptian Elderly Population

Background: Dementia prevalence is increasing, becoming a public health problem in geriatric population requiring early diagnosis. The MMSE is the most commonly used screening method in the diagnosis and assessment of dementia severity in clinical and research fields; however cut off points in Egyptian population with its different levels of education are not clear.Aim: To review MMSE cut-off values adjusted for schooling in an Arabic speaking sample of Egyptian elderly.Methods: The study was conducted on 159 male and female community-dwelling participants aged ≥ 60 years, cut-off points were determined according to DSM-IV criteria for dementia after defining the participants according to their level of education.Results: Overall the sample, the cut-off score of MMSE for diagnosing dementia was 23 points (sensitivity=95%, specificity= 73.83%). For participants with > 9 years education cut off point was ≤ 22 (sensitivity=94%, specificity=70.2%) while for those with for participants ≤ 9 years education cut off point was ≤ 21 (sensitivity= 91%, specificity=33.3%).Conclusions: New cut off points for MMSE became now available for both educated and low educated geriatric people. The new cut-off scores are ≤ 22 for subjects > 9 years education and ≤ 21 for illiterate subjects and those with