Cognitive assessment in elderly residents of long-stay institutions.

Objective: To evaluate the cognitive performance of institutionalized elderly in the city of Natal, state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.

Methods: A descriptive, longitudinal study of 85 aged individuals via an interview conducted following the application of a classification form and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), with different cutoff points according to the level of education. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Universidad Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (164/2011).