Construct and validity of Persian Mini Mental Status Examination in illiterate elderly

Background Dementia is a health concern all over the world. The prevalence of dementia is growing due to increasing elderly population. Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE) is common tool for assess cognitive disorders. We aim to construct and validate the Persian version of MMSE in illiterate elderly (60 years and older) and also assign cut off point for this population in Iran. Method We did a cross‐sectional study on 310 elderly individuals (209 healthy participants and 101 elderlies with dementia) in teaching center in Shiraz from 2012 to 2014. Our participants categorized to different stages of dementia with Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR). We used Receiver operating characteristic analysis, kappa analysis and Cronbach’s α coefficient for statistical analysis. Result Our results showed that MMSE score has significant association with age, marital status, living condition, occupation and CDR score (P< 0.001). The total Cronbach's alpha value for all domains of MMSE was more than 0.7. The cut‐off point of 21/5 of revised Persian MMSE for illiterate Persian elderly with 95% sensitivity and specificity rates of 72% was calculated. We showed cut off point for three age groups of elderly. We found 24.5, 21.5 and 22.5 for participants with 60‐69, 70‐80 and more than 80 years old respectively. Conclusion The Persian version of MMSE was found to be useful and valid instrument for the determination of dementia in the illiterate elderly population.