A “mini” Mini-Mental State Examination

The authors propose a six item screener (SIS) that contains six items from the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE):

The examiner first asks the patient to remember three items: GRASS PAPER SHOE. The examiner could repeat the words 3 times as needed to help the patient.

• Orientation to time
1. Year
2. Month
3. Day of the week
• Recall of three items (one point each)

Patients: The authors studied 371 patients in the emergency room after excluding 587 patients, mostly due to having received sedating medications.

Results: As compared to the full MMSE, the accuracy of the SIS was:

• Sensitivity 74%
• Specificity 77%

Citation:

Carpenter CR, Despain B, Keeling TN, Shah M, & Rothenberger M (2011). The Six-Item Screener and AD8 for the Detection of Cognitive Impairment in Geriatric Emergency Department Patients. Annals of emergency medicine, 57 (6), 653-61 PMID: 20855129