Cognitive Assessment in First Language Welsh Speakers - A Pilot Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cognitive Assessment in First Language Welsh Speakers – should they be performed in Welsh? A Pilot Study
IRAS ID
158029
Contact name
Sion Jones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Liverpool
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 2 days
Research summary
19% of Wales’ population speaks Welsh. Under the Welsh Language Act 1993, every public body providing services to the public in Wales has to prepare a scheme setting out how it will provide those services in Welsh.
Diagnosing dementia requires a comprehensive assessment, an essential component of which is a cognitive assessment tool, which takes the form of a questionnaire. In clinical practice, this is often currently only available through the medium of English.
Our objective is to measure the difference between Cognitive Assessment scores (using the Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA)), when done in English and Welsh, in those who are cognitively impaired and whose first language is Welsh. We predict that there will be a trend towards significance in scores in favour of the Welsh-medium tests, thus suggesting that the current mode of administering the test is prejudiced against patients whose first language is Welsh.
If our predictions are correct, then we would use the data therein to make a power calculation to plan a definitive empirical study, which in itself could help to introduce a validated Welsh-language cognitive assessment tool to the domain of the Welsh NHS.
REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
17/WA/0262
Date of REC Opinion
22 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion