Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 54, Issue 4 P223-P230, Copyright © 1999 by The Gerontological Society of America

ARTICLES

Cognitive functioning and impairment among rural elderly hispanics and non-hispanic whites as assessed by the mini-mental state examination

CL Mulgrew, N Morgenstern, SM Shetterly, J Baxter and AE Baron
Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine.

We conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the distribution of cognitive functioning as measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) among a sample of Hispanic and non-Hispanic White (NHW) residents from two counties in rural, southern Colorado. Residents aged 60 years and older (N = 1,360) were administered the full MMSE, a sociodemographic and medical interview. Protocols were developed to administer the MMSE equitably in both ethnic groups. Younger Hispanics tended to be catergorized as severly impaired more than similarly aged NHWs (OR at age 70 = 4.14), however, older Hispanics and NHWs performed similarly after adjusting for education and gender (OR at age 90 = 1.00). The use of a modified MMSE scale that removed the ethnic bias demonstrated that NHWs and Hispanics had similar levels of severe impairment after full adjustment (OR = 0.93). Given the widespread use of the MMSE, these findings indicate the need for further validation of this instrument.

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