Validation of the Spanish-language version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test in adults older than 60 years

Few studies have validated the Spanish-language version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-S) test in Latin American populations. To evaluate the psychometric properties and discriminant validity of the MoCA-S in elderly patients in Santiago de Chile. 172 individuals were grouped according to their clinical diagnosis based on the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale as follows: amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI; n=24), non-amnestic MCI (naMCI; n=24), mild dementia (n=20), and cognitively normal (n=104). Participants were evaluated with both the MoCA-S and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) to determine the discriminant validity of the MoCA-S. Mean age and years of schooling were 73±6 and 11±4 years, respectively, with no significant intergroup differences. The MoCA-S displayed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α: 0.772), high inter-rater reliability (Spearman correlation coefficient: 0.846; P