COPD and Cognitive Impairment Pilot Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A Pilot Study Investigating the Prevalence of Cognitive Impairment in COPD patients, and Domains of Cognition Affected in COPD Patients.
IRAS ID
198871
Contact name
Alice Turner
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 0 days
Research summary
COPD is a common chronic respiratory disease, often seen in older adults who have smoked. There is growing evidence of a link between COPD and cognitive impairment, which has a specific medical definition but may be thought of as similar to dementia. Research has shown that cognitive problems occur in 2-52% of COPD patients and that they may be more at risk of this compared to other people without COPD because they ahve low oxygen levels, inflammation and changes in brain structure. With an ageing population, it is a highly topical area of research needing further investigation particularly in terms of the types of cognitive problems COPD patients develop.
Other studies have shown that COPD patients diagnosed with cognitive problems may have different areas of cognitive ability affected than those diagnosed with Alzheimers disease or other types of dementia. However we do not know if there is a specific type of cognitive problem related to COPD and little literature relates to a direct investigation of this. In our systematic review of the published data, we found that in most studies there were not clear definitions of the type of cognitive impairment participants had. As “dementia” (or now, more correctly Major Neurocognitive Disorder) is an umbrella term, it is important that future research clearly defines the type of dementia participants have.
The ACE-III is a questionnaire used to establish areas of cognition affected in dementias, therefore we will use it to establish the type of cognitive problems which patients with COPD have, and compare the rate and pattern of cognitive problems with other relevant patient groups, such as those with known dementia or other chronic respiratory disease. This will fill some of the gaps in published research that our systematic review found.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0192
Date of REC Opinion
3 Jun 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion