A retrospective analysis of the sentence writing component of the Mini Mental State Examination: cognitive and affective aspects
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Updated: May 22, 2026

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing
Published on: January 24, 2020
Yan Press1, Natalia Velikiy, Alex Berzak
1Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. yanp@bgu.ac.il
Background:
One of the components of the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) is the request to write a sentence. We investigated the relationship between the characteristics of the written sentence of the MMSE and the cognitive and affective status of elderly patients.
Methods:
The characteristics of the sentence were compared to the total MMSE score, sociodemographic characteristics, tests evaluating cognition and affective status, and diagnoses.
Results:
The number of words was significantly associated with the degree of cognitive impairment, whereas the emotional polarity of sentences and concerns about health were associated with depression.
Conclusions:
Characteristics of the MMSE sentence may provide important additional information regarding both cognition and affect when assessing older people.
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