Diagnostic validity of the Persian version of Montreal Cognitive Assessment - basic for cognitive screening

The growing number of older people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) highlights the need for suitable and effective neuropsychological assessments. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment Basic (MoCA-B) is designed to identify MCI in individuals with lower literacy and education levels. This study seeks to validate the use of MoCA-B in the Persian-speaking population.

In this cross-sectional study, the original English version of the MoCA-B test was translated into Persian using the forward-backward method. The study involved 60 cognitively healthy aging individuals, 30 with Alzheimer's disease, and 30 MCI patients. All participants met the MMSE, MoCA-B, DSM-5, and Albert's criteria.

MoCA-B scores in patients with AD were significantly lower than in the patients with MCI and healthy individuals (P < 0.001). They were significantly lower in MCI than individuals without cognitive impairment (P < 0.001). The cutoff score for discriminating between patients with AD/MCI and individuals without cognitive impairment was 20.5 (sensitivity = 95.0%, specificity = 88.3%, AUC = 0.972).

This study shows that the MoCA-B is a suitable screening tool for distinguishing persons with cognitive impairment (MCI and AD) in the Persian-speaking population.