Performance of dialysis patients on the standard and basic Arabic versions of the Montreal Cognitive Assessments

To assess cognitive performance in Saudi patients on dialysis using Arabic versions of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and assess the reliability of the scales.

We performed a cross-sectional study at the dialysis unit of King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh from April 2019 to March 2020. Patients ≥ 18 years of age with no history of dementia underwent cognitive assessment with the standard (MoCA-A) and basic (MoCA-B) Arabic versions, with repeat testing in a subset of participants.

Recruitment included 83 participants, 56 on hemodialysis (HD) and 27 on peritoneal dialysis (PD). The mean±SD for age was 49.99 (15.48), and for years of education was 10.29 (5.5). The mean score for MoCA-A was 21.03±5.35, and for MoCA-B was 23.45±5.14. Younger age, longer years of education and peritoneal dialysis were significantly associated with higher MoCA scores on both versions (p<0.05). The ICC was 0.81 (95% CI 0.65, 0.91) and 0.77 (95% CI 0.58, 0.89) for MoCA-A and MoCA-B, respectively. The performance on the executive and calculation tasks were higher in the PD group on the MoCA-B. The recall mean score was higher in the PD group on the MoCA-A.

The HD patients are at higher risk for cognitive impairment compared to PD patients. Age and education are important variables influencing performance. Both Arabic versions of the MoCA are reliable screening tools.