Early Detection of Mild Alzheimer’s Disease in Filipino Elderly: Validation of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Philippines (MoCA-P)

Abstract

Background: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a useful instrument employed by clinicians to detect cognitive impairment and diagnose probable Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) while in its early stages. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the diagnostic validity of the Philippine version of the MoCA (MoCA-P) among 1385 community-dwelling Filipino elderly from Marikina City, Metro Manila. Results: 509 controls and 97 elderly with probable AD and a Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) global score of 0.5 were included in the analysis. Analysis of variance showed that the AD group was older (p < 0.05) and had fewer years of education (p < 0.05). The optimal cut-off score to differentiate controls from those with probable AD was 20/21, with a sensitivity of 0.835 and a specificity of 0.723, and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.89 (p < 0.001).