Mini Mental State Examinations in English: Are they Suitable for People with Dementia Who are Welsh Speaking?

Resource type
Journal Article
Authors/contributors
Title
Mini Mental State Examinations in English: Are they Suitable for People with Dementia Who are Welsh Speaking?
Abstract
Extracts from the article, as no Abstract was provided in the journal. Based on the prediction that Welsh speakers would score higher on theMMSE when it was administered in their first language, the study aimed todetermine whether Welsh speaking clients suffering from dementia scoreddifferently when assessed using the MMSE in English and in Welsh. An experiment involving repeated measures was used. The criteria for inclusion in the project were that the person had a diagnosisof dementia and that he or she spoke Welsh as a first language. Participants were given the Welsh and English versions of the MMSEon two separate occasions, from 2 to 7 days apart. Participants were allocated into two groups whereby Group A receivedthe Welsh version first and Group B received the English version first. Individual scores were then compared againsttheir own score in the other language test. The sample consistedof 31 participants, of which 42 % scored better in Welsh and 29% scored better in English. In order to establish whether the results could be extended to the wider population the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was used. With p= 0.149, these results cannot confidently be generalized to the wider population. As 39 percent of participants scored better in the English version, theresults did not support the original hypothesis. There areseveral potential explanations for this. English is the dominant language in the communities involved in the research. It is therefore possible that participants may not have had sufficient exposure to the Welsh language cor a long time or they had only speak it in familiar situations, such as with their friends and family. Although the small sample size means that more extensive research needsto be undertaken , the number of participants who scored differently when the MMSE was administered in Welsh and in English does raise cause for concern. It is therefore recommended that bilingual patients should be tested inboth languages and that their best result be considered as the moreaccurate one
Publication
Dementia
Date
06/2003
Volume
2
Issue
2
Pages
267-272
Journal Abbr
Dementia
Accessed
4/13/26, 2:50 PM
ISSN
1471-3012, 1741-2684
Short Title
Mini Mental State Examinations in English
Language
en
Library Catalogue
DOI.org (Crossref)
Citation
Morgan, T., & Crowder, R. (2003). Mini Mental State Examinations in English: Are they Suitable for People with Dementia Who are Welsh Speaking? Dementia, 2(2), 267–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301203002002009
Minority language group(s)
Study population
Research type
  • Quantitative