Scoring written material from the Mini-Mental State Examination: a comparison of face-to-face,fax and video-linked scoring

Abstract

We assessed the reliability of scoring written items of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) using different communication modes: face to face, fax and videoconferencing. A total of 99 MMSEs were recovered from the records of a community mental health team for the elderly. The written parts of the examination (sentence and pentagrams) were scored - in person, using a faxed copy or over the video-link - according to published criteria. Relative to in-person scoring, sentences could be scored reliably when faxed (kappa=0.80), as could pentagrams (kappa=0.71). Sentences could be reliably scored over the videoconferencing link (kappa=0.70), but pentagrams could not (kappa=0.47). Caution is required before accepting the results of scoring such tests over video-links.