Comparison of Two Brief Tests of Organic Brain Impairment, the MSQ and the Short Portable MSQ

Abstract

A rapid means of validly assessing the presence or absence of organic brain impairment among the elderly is valuable for clinicians whose practice includes geriatric patients. Two such measures are the Mental Status Questionnaire (MSQ) and the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ). The similarity of content of these two 10‐item questionnaires has led to the suggestion that their capacity to identify organic impairment may be similar. The question was examined in this study. Data were obtained on 83 elderly community residents on whom the validity of the SPMSQ had been tested. In 29 the diagnosis was organic brain syndrome (OBS), and the other 54 were classified as non‐OBS. After making minor changes in the scoring of the SPMSQ to improve discriminability (omissions were scored as errors), the MSQ and the SPMSQ were found to be equivalent in discriminating power. Both questionnaires accurately identified almost all (96 percent) of the non‐OBS subjects but missed nearly half of the subjects with a diagnosis of OBS. Item analysis indicated that two items in the MSQ and three items in the SPMSQ could explain nearly as much variance as did the total set of items. Thus the capacities of these two scales to identify the presence of diagnosed OBS among elderly community residents appeared to be equivalent. If test brevity is desired, the questionnaires could be made still shorter, with little loss of effectiveness.