The MMSE and the CDR and its subsequent correlation/effect on screen fail
rates in clinical research trials for Mild Cognitive Impairment 
   Lead Investigator:    Christina Diluccia
   Institution      :    William James College
   E-Mail           :    christina_diluccia@williamjames.edu
   Proposal ID      :    1329



   Proposal Description:
   The goals of the proposed research are to determine what scores individuals with a diagnosis of MCI usually obtain on the MMSE and CDR. This will be important to see how these scores correlate with the cut off scores, per the inclusion and exclusion (IE) criteria for enrollment, that are decided upon for enrollment into Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) clinical research trials.    The impact that these results will have on the field are to shed light on the discrepancies between the actual, average/range of scores obtained by individuals with MCI on these measures within the field, and the cut off scores that are determined for use within MCI clinical trials. In other words, MCI clinical trials has been known to unnecessarily the MMSE + CDR based off of the cutoff scores they have determined as measures. However, I worked as a psychometric rater on several MCI trials and often times individuals with an MCI diagnosis and true displays of MCI, were screen failed due to a cut off score on the MMSE having to be between a 24-30 and a CDR of 0.5. Often times, we would find individuals with MCI obtain scores  between at 19-23 (which are the cutoff scores the MMSE has already provided us for MCI classification), but these MCI trials have chosen their own cutoffs which make for it almost impossible for someone with MCI to enroll in these trials. This is important because high screen fail rates due to testing means several people with MCI do not have access to treatment or inclusion through clinical trials, and thus making it hard for the MCI population to even be studied. Furthermore, IE criteria usually also specify that individuals must have a certain level of education, not be hearing or visually impaired, and must have English learned as their first language. This poses another issue for screen failing individuals based off of not meeting this inclusion criteria, thus making any results that come from these MCI clinical trials unable to be generalized to the population d