Concordance, reproducibility, and usability of a Brazilian version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) questionnaire in electronic format (Appsheet) to screen cognitive impairment in older women

Objective

To analyze the agreement between instrument versions (paper vs. digital) of the MONTREAL COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT (MoCA), and evaluate the reproducibility and usability of the electronic instrument.

Methods

A total of 118 community-dwelling older women, aged 60 to 79 years, participated in a two-stage data collection process. In the first stage, both the paper and digital versions of the MoCA were randomly administered. Two weeks later, a subset of the participants was randomly selected for a retest, performed only on the mobile phone. Data analysis included agreement coefficients, Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency, mean square differences, mean, and standard deviation to screen for mild cognitive impairment.

Results

The results revealed substantial agreement (CCC=0.777; p < 0.001) and moderate to high internal consistency (α = 0.736). High reproducibility was observed across different age ranges, 60 to 69 years (CCC=0.752; p < 0.001) and 70 to 79 years (CCC = 0.772; p < 0.001), and usability was rated as excellent (76.25).

Conclusion

These findings provide evidence that the electronic version of the MoCA (DS-MoCA) using a mobile phone is a valid alternative for cognitive assessment in older women.