Centre for Policy on Ageing



Differential item functioning in the Mini-Mental State Examination in English- and Spanish-speaking older adults
Author(s)	Sarah C Marshall, Dai Mungas, Minda Weldon
Journal title	Psychology and Aging, vol 12, no 4, December 1997
Pages	pp 718-725
Keywords	Ethnic groups ; Cognitive processes ; Measurement ; United States of America.
Annotation	This study's purpose was to determine whether the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE - Folstein, Folstein and McHugh, 1975) demonstrates item bias with respect to measuring cognitive functioning of older Hispanics and non-Hispanics. Assessment of differential item functioning (DIF) of individual MMSE items across three language/ethnicity groups (English test administration/ non-Hispanic ethnicity, English test administration/Hispanic ethnicity, and Spanish test administration/Hispanic ethnicity) were performed by using a logistic regression procedure. Fifteen of the 26 MMSE items were significantly related to total score, and were shown to provide unbiased measurement across the three groups. Normative data are presented for older Hispanics (365) and non-Hispanics (388) on the raw MMSE, a 15-item version in which items with significant DIF were eliminated, and a total score statistically adjusted for effects of education and age.
Accession Number	CPA-980225009 A
Classmark	TK: DA: 3R: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.