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Montreal Cognitive Assessment Performance among Community-Dwelling African Americans
Heidi C Rossetti1, Laura H Lacritz1,2, Linda S Hynan1,3
1Department of Psychiatry.
Objective:
To report descriptive and normative data for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in a population-based African American sample.
Method:
The MoCA was administered to 1,419 African American participants (mean age 49.89 years, range 18-75, 64% female). After excluding those with subjective cognitive complaints (n = 301), normative data were generated by education and overlapping age ranges (n = 1,118). Pearson correlations and analysis of variance were used to examine the relationship to demographic variables, and frequency of missed items was reviewed.
Results:
Total MoCA scores (mean 22.3, SD 3.9) were lower than previously published normative data derived from an elderly Caucasian Canadian population with 80% falling below the suggested cutoff (<26) for impairment. Several MoCA items were missed by a large portion of the sample, including cube drawing (72%), delayed free recall (66% <4/5 words), sentence repetition (63%), and abstraction items (45%).
Conclusion:
This is the first study to examine normative performance on the MoCA specific to community-dwelling African Americans. Findings suggest that certain aspects of this measure and previously established cutoff scores may not be well-suited for some populations.