• Felicia C Goldstein, Angela V Ashley, Eric Miller, Olga Alexeeva, Lavezza Zanders, and Veronique King.
• Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA fgoldst@emory.edu.
• J Geriatr Psych Neur. 2014 Sep 1; 27 (3): 199-203.

AbstractThe validity of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) as a screen for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia was evaluated in African Americans attending an urban outpatient memory disorders clinic. Eighty one patients ≥50 years old were administered the MoCA and neuropsychological tests. Clinicians, blinded to the MoCA scores, reviewed the neuropsychological findings and reports of instrumental activities of daily living and they assigned a diagnosis of normal cognition (NC; N = 16), MCI (N = 38), or dementia (N = 27). The MoCA scores of the 3 groups were significantly different (NC > MCI > dementia). Using cutoff scores of ≤24 points for MCI and ≤22 points for dementia, the MoCA had .95 sensitivity and .63 specificity for MCI and .96 sensitivity and .88 specificity for dementia. The MoCA is a valid and cost-effective screen for cognitive impairment in African Americans but with a higher likelihood of falsely classifying persons with NC as having MCI. © The Author(s) 2014.

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