The Itel-MMSE: an Italian telephone version of the Mini-Mental State Examination.

We compared performance in an Italian telephone version of the Mini-Mental Status Examination (Itel-MMSE) with performance in the standard MMSE administered face to face to 104 inpatients affected by cognitive deficit. Their cognitive ability varied from mildly to severely impaired. Total scores of the two MMSE versions correlated strongly for all patients (r=0.85) and for very mildly (r=0.77), mildly (r=0.79), and moderately (r=0.72) demented. A weak but statistically significant correlation was observed for severely demented patients (r=0.46). The study establishes the validity and reliability of the Itel-MMSE as well as between rater and test-retest reliability. We calculated a regression equation for use in predicting MMSE scores from Itel-MMSE scores. Data fit a linear regression model.