聴覚障害を持つ認知症者の認知機能測定方法開発のための予備的検討 : Mini-Mental State Examination(MMSE)文字化による試み

概要

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We developed a Japanese version of the written Mini-Mental Status Examination (wMMSE-J) for assessing the actual cognitive functions of dementia patients with hearing impairment and performed a preliminary test in 25 dementia patients (mean age 85.4 ± 7.9 years). Patients were divided into hearing impaired (17 patients) and non-hearing impaired groups (8 patients) on the basis of pure-tone average. The correlation coefficient between MMSE and wMMSE-J for all subjects was r = 0.80 (p = 0.00). However, a t-test indicated that scores for wMMSE-J were significantly lower. Stratification by the level of dementia revealed that the wMMSE-J score was lower than the MMSE score for all groups other than the slight dementia group. Among the non-hearing impaired, significant difference was found between MMSE and wMMSE-J. However, among the hearing impaired, significant differences in overall score and in the subtests of comprehension and writing, both of which require long written instructions, were found between MMSE and wMMSE-J. Because wMMSE-J has limited usefulness, further innovations are required, such as improving the written instructions so that they can be comprehended by groups other than those with slight dementia as well as by those with dementia and hearing impairment.