![]() The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a one-page, 30-point cognitive screening measurement scale that takes about 10 minutes to administer. Montreal Cognitive Assessment Tool (MoCA) This study was therefore designed to determine the psychometric properties of MoCA among older people in Ethiopia to detect major neurocognitive disorder and determine factors associated with it. Testing the applicability and validity of such cognitive screening instruments in the country is therefore critical to guide evidence-based decision-making. 17 The country is also known for its cultural and linguistic diversity. As to the researcher’s best knowledge, it has never been validated in Ethiopia.Įthiopia is a unique nation situated in East Africa with low coverage and access to education and high level of illiteracy. 15, 16Įven though a wealth of evidence is available for its effectiveness in various setups and detecting cognitive impairments resulting from a range of etiologies, few validation studies have been done in Africa. 9 This has led to a recommendation for a one-point correction for those with lower levels of education which was indicated to dissolve the education effect in several studies. 13, 14 Studies have also reported MoCA to be relatively resistant to linguistic and cultural variabilities even though it was reported to be affected by educational status. 7, 11 It has been tested in several settings, including some countries in Africa, and evidence is available for its validity and reliability. 9, 12 The tool has also been especially praised for its ability to detect subtle changes in the cognitive functioning. ![]() Studies have evaluated the effectiveness of MoCA in different settings around the world, and it has been shown to be valid and reliable tool to detect dementia. 9–11 A cut point of 26 has been recommended to identify major neurocognitive disorder and MoCA had 100% sensitivity, 87% specificity, 89% positive predictive value, and 91% negative predictive values in the initial validation study. 9 Visuospatial, executive functioning, short-term memory, attention/concentration/working memory, language, and orientation are the cognitive domains assessed by the tool. MoCA is a brief cognitive function assessment tool with 12 items developed by Nasreddine et al in 2005. 4, 8 This warrants the development of new tools or testing the available ones for their applicability in low educated and highly diverse populations of LMICs. Many of the currently available cognitive screening tools were developed in the socioeconomically developed settings. 3, 6 Availability of such the screening tools would enable service providers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) to identify the disorder and direct effective interventions. The need for such tools is even more pronounced in the developing countries with a significant gap in human, material, and facility resources to effectively identify those with the dementia. For this reason, brief and effective screening tools have been developed over the years. ![]() However, all these may not always be available, especially in resource limited settings. 5Įffective diagnosis and identification of the disorder and its treatment require extensive evaluations, diagnostic procedures, imaging, and laboratory tests. 4 A study in Ethiopia reported a 43.8% prevalence of Dementia among older adults among whom22.9% were reported to have moderate-to-severe cognitive impairment. 1–3 Globally, it is estimated that around 55 million people live with Dementia, which is the seventh leading cause of mortality worldwide. Major neurocognitive disorder (Dementia) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized mainly by progressive decline in the cognitive functioning. Cognition is one of the most complex functions of the human brain that incorporates language, attention, orientation, memory, judgment, abstract reasoning, problem-solving, praxis, and executive function.
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