Montreal Cognitive Assessment

I often get handovers from different therapists with MOCA scores. I thought i would further research what the MOCA assesses and what the diifferent scores mean.

Z.S. Nasreddine et al (2005) The Montreal cognitive assessment, MOCA: A brief screening tool for mild cognitive impairment, Journal of american geriatrics society, 53(4), p605-699

Introduction

• 1 page, 30 point test taking 10 minutes.
• 26 or above is considered normal.
• Apraxia of speech - reduced score due to repetition difficulties/ naming difficulties.
• Receptive aphasia - reduced score due to reduced ability to understand instructions.
• Expressive aphasia - reduced score due to naming impairments/ word generation difficulties

Why was the MOCA created?

• Very sensitive to mild Alzheimers disease (100% predictor in one study), and mild cognitive impairment (89%).
• Usefull for assessing mild stages of the cognitive impairment spectrum.

Assessment	Task
Visuospatial abilities Short term memory recall Attention Working memory Language Orientation to time/ place	- Clock drawing/ cube copying - reading ‘face, velvet, church, daisy, red’ – recall after 5 minutes. Tapping task – tap when say ‘A’ Serial subtraction task (taking 7 away from 100) Confrontation naming task (camel, lion, Rhinoceros). Repetition of 2 syntactically complex sentences. Word fluency task (words beginning with F in one minute, norm = 11 words). Date, month, year, day, place, city