Normative Data for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in a Representative Sample of Qatar’s Arabic Speaking Healthy Population

Abstract Objective Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a precursor for many cognitive disorders, which have increased in prevalence globally, such as dementia, which is increasing globally. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a brief screening instrument for detecting MCI. Qatar, a small rapidly developing country, has the largest projected increase in dementia of any country in the Middle East. Yet no population-based norms of cognitive function are available to date. Methods As part of the first national cross-sectional pilot study of mental health, a total of 395 Qatari and non-Qatari Arabs, 18 to 74 years of age were evaluated face-to-face using the Arabic version of the original MoCA (version 7.1). We computed raw and demographically (gender, age in years, and four education categories) adjusted overall test and domain (visuospatial,executive function, attention, language, delayed memory, and orientation) scores. The percentile ranking of raw and adjusted non-normative and normative (z) scores were computed. The 5th percentile ranking was used to derive potential MCI-related cut-offs for the MoCA overall test and the six related domains. Results Female gender, older age, and lower levels of education were associated with poorer overall test scores. The following MoCA overall test and domains cut-off scores (rounded to the nearest integer) were identified: MoCA (22), visuospatial (2), executive (2.5), attention (4), language (4), and delayed memory (3). Conclusions Based on our population-based data, scores below these 5th percentile cut-offs may warrant further testing and clinical follow-up for MCI in otherwise healthy Arabic speaking populations.