Validación preliminar exploratoria del mini - cog test con relación al mmse en el cribado de demencia en los adultos mayores de las unidades de atención del cantón Cuenca. Ecuador. 2015

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: There is a life expectancy increase in Ecuador after age 65, which is characterized by great social problems in this group. To this, it is added a difficult access to health services, for instance, it is an age group with higher risk in its next years, because could present many degenerative diseases, among these dementia.

Sustainability, relevance and speed are the biggest challenges of the health system. Screening tests are a key part when it is necessary to make clinical decisions in medical practice. The prevalence of dementia varies substantially worldwide, so its early detection must become a challenge for public health.

OBJECTIVE: Assess the reliability of the Mini - Cog regarding the MMSE test in screening for dementia in older adults of Cuenca in the year 2015.

METHODS: The study was developed based on the model of evaluation of preliminary exploratory screening tests, given for STARD. Previously, the cognitive characteristics of 324 older adults without dementia pathology were evaluated using the MMSE as gold standard for dementia screening and the Mini – Cog Test, the short screening test to be evaluated.

RESULTS: The Mini Cog Test, test to be validated by this study, had a sensitivity of 93.27%, specificity 59.09%, positive predictive value of 51.87%, negative predictive value of 94.89%, in a dementia prevalence of 32.10%. Also, a diagnostic accuracy of 76.18% and Youden index of 52% were obtained.

CONCLUSION: The Mini Cog has good reliability in terms of sensibility, negative predictive value, and diagnostic exactitude,after have analyzed its operational characteristics together,The use of this test is up to the health professional, due to its good diagnostic efficiency, but Youden index limit.