Background and objectives: The Mini-Examination Cognitive (MEC) of Lobo et al is widely used as a screening tool for dementia in epidemiological studies and in clinical context for the rapid evaluation of cases in whom there is a suspicion of cognitive deterioriation due to dementia. Nevertheless, the validity analysis in old people have not been accomplished. The objective of this study has been to validate the use of this instrument to detect cognitive deterioration associated with dementia in elderly people.
Patients and methods: Ninety-five old people have participated, one group of patients of a Neurology Service and another group of healthy old people. All of them have been evaluated through a neuropsychological exploration protocol and the MEC.
Results: The results show a high validity of this test for the evaluation of the cognitive deterioration in this population, as in the correlation with the neurological tests used as in the ANOVA intergroups (with and without deterioration) executed; they also reflect the influence on the puntuations of variables such as the age and the educational level.
Conclusions: The utility of this procedure for the Spanish population with a low cultural level and the necessity of working with different criteria depending on the age and the educational level of the patients evaluated is shown here.