Background
Mild cognitive impairment is a condition that transitions to dementia in most of the cases. Early detection and management with the correction of modifiable risk factors is the only way to reduce the burden of dementia. Hence, using proper screening tools for mild cognitive impairment is warranted. This study aimed to test the validity of revised Petersen's criteria in the screening for mild cognitive impairment among a sample of community-dwelling Egyptian elderly.
Methods
A cross-sectional study including 106 elderly patients was done. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test was used as the gold standard test to diagnose mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Revised Petersen`s criteria were applied to all participants. Patients with dementia, depression, severe hearing or visual impairment, and physical or neurological disease that hinder their ability to perform the tests were excluded from the study.
Results
The prevalence of MCI in the study sample was 70.8% using MoCA. Compared to MoCA, Revised Petersen criteria had high specificity (90.3%) and positive predictive value (92.7%), but low sensitivity (50.7%).
Conclusion
The Arabic version of MoCA used cut-off points that need re-evaluation in the Egyptian population as it is unlikely that the percentage of MCI among community-dwelling elderly be that high (70.8%). With such a low sensitivity revised Petersen's criteria cannot be used for screening of MCI. It can be applied for confirmation of MCI cases (Specificity 90%).