Which assessment is designed as a brief screening tool for mild cognitive impairment?

• A. MMSE
• B. Mini-Cog
• C. Montreal Cognitive Assessment
• D. MOCA

Answer: (C)

Screening for mild cognitive impairment requires a brief test that can detect subtle, multi-domain cognitive changes. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment fits this need well, taking about ten minutes and scoring up to 30 to gauge performance across several areas: visuospatial and executive function, naming, memory encoding and recall, attention and concentration, language, abstraction, and orientation. This broad coverage makes it more sensitive to mild deficits than other quick screens, so it’s better suited for identifying MCI than tools that are shorter or more focused on dementia.

The MMSE is a longer screen and tends to miss early MCI because it doesn’t probe executive function and subtle attentional problems as robustly. The Mini-Cog is even briefer and centers on recall and clock drawing, functioning well as a general dementia screen but not specifically designed to pick up mild cognitive impairment. For a brief, targeted screen for MCI, this Montreal Cognitive Assessment is the strongest choice. Note that MOCA refers to the same test, just another common name for it.