A non-vocal brief cognitive assessment for people with dementia: Pilot
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A non-vocal brief cognitive assessment for people with dementia: Pilot
IRAS ID
250084
Contact name
Rebecca Sharp
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
This is a research project that aims to find better ways to assess cognitive ability in people living with dementia. Clinicians commonly use the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) as a brief assessment of cognition. However, you have to be able to speak to answer the questions. This means that people with dementia who have speech issues or loss, but who still understand what is being asked of them, will score artificially low. A risk is therefore that people then assume the person is less capable than they are, and the assessment does not accurately reflect their abilities. When care plans and supports are based on inaccurate assessments, they may not be truly person-centered or adequate. We have designed a non-vocal version of the assessment in the hopes that we might better assess people with dementia who have speech issues but understanding. The purpose of the study is to test out this new assessment and see how it could be used to ensure person-centred care. We will do this by evaluating people with dementia’s performance on the standard MMSE, our non-vocal MMSE, and some other commonly used assessments. We will also gather information from care staff regarding the acceptability of the assessment we have developed.
REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
18/WA/0255
Date of REC Opinion
29 Aug 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion