Does the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) as a stand-alone single-administration test predict the development of dementia in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI)?
The MMSE is insufficient as a standalone test to predict which patients with mild cognitive impairment will progress to dementia.
Our review did not find evidence supporting a substantial role of MMSE as a stand-alone single-administration test in the identification of MCI patients who could develop dementia. Clinicians could prefer to request additional and extensive tests to be sure about the management of these patients. An important aspect to assess in future updates is if conversion to dementia from MCI stages could be predicted better by MMSE changes over time instead of single measurements. It is also important to assess if a set of tests, rather than an isolated one, may be more successful in predicting conversion from MCI to dementia.
Arévalo-Rodríguez et al. (Thu,) studied this question.