Utility of a short, telephone-administered version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment

J Am Geriatr Soc. 2021 Oct;69(10):2741-2744. doi: 10.1111/jgs.17318. Epub 2021 Jun 17.

Abstract

Background: Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing D-CARE pragmatic trial of two models of dementia care management needed to transition to all data collection by telephone.

Methods: For the first 1069 D-CARE participants, we determined the feasibility of administering a short 3-item version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to persons with dementia by telephone and examined the correlation with the full 12-item version.

Results: The 3-item version could be administered by telephone in approximately 6 min and was highly correlated with the full MoCA (r = 0.78, p < 0.0001).

Conclusions: This brief version of the MoCA was feasible to collect by telephone and could be used as an alternative to the full MoCA, particularly if the purpose of cognitive assessment is characterization of study participants.

Keywords: cognitive assessment; dementia; telephone administration.

Publication types

  • Pragmatic Clinical Trial
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • COVID-19* / prevention & control
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / diagnosis
  • Dementia* / diagnosis
  • Dementia* / psychology
  • Dementia* / therapy
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infection Control / methods
  • Interviews as Topic / methods
  • Male
  • Mental Status and Dementia Tests*
  • Patient Care Management* / methods
  • Patient Care Management* / trends
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Telemedicine / methods*