An adaptation of the Korean mini-mental state examination (K-MMSE) in elderly Koreans: demographic influence and population-based norms (the AGE study).

The mini-mental state examination (MMSE) is a brief global instrument used to assess cognitive abilities, and has been translated into the K-MMSE. The clinical value of the K-MMSE is restricted by the small amount of normative data available, especially for the elderly population. We investigated the population-based data of K-MMSE scores to obtain the norms specific for the sociodemographic characteristics of elderly Koreans. The K-MMSE was applied to a cognitively normal sample of 977 subjects aged 60-84 years in Ansan, South Korea. We determined whether the sociodemographic characteristics were related to the K-MMSE scores and calculated the norms. The K-MMSE score was significantly associated with age, gender, and level of education, and this result was used to develop normative data with age, gender, and educational strata. The normative data based on age, gender, and level of education presented here are suitable for clinical use.