The subitems of turkish version of MMSE differentiate stages in alzheimer type of dementia according to the global deterioration scale

Purpose: Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) (Folstein, 1975) and Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) (Reisberg, 1982) are simple and widely used instruments to evaluate cognitive status in AD. The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes in the subitems of Turkish version of MMSE according to the clinical stages of in AD.Method: We compared the MMSE subitems and GDS stages in 337 consecutive AD patients referred to Dokuz Eylul University Dementia Clinic between 1995 and 2001. When factor analysis performed on MMSE subitems, two factors have been extracted. Ordinal logistic regression has been performed to be able to model the relationship with these two factors and GDS stages.Findings: There was no relation between scores and age or education level. Each MMSE subitems itself is not sufficient to predict the stages. But when examined with two factors, MMSE subitems can predict the GDS stages by 74% accuracy.