HCAP Clinical Validation Study

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  A Clinical Validation study of the Harmonised Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP)

• IRAS ID

  289033

• Contact name

  Bernadette McGuinness

• Contact email

  B.McGuinness@qub.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Research Governance, Ethics and Integrity Manager, Queen's University Belfast

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  N/A, N/A

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 9 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  The Harmonised Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) has been designed to assess memory problems such as dementia and cognitive impairment. It is important that we improve our ability to assess these as growing evidence suggests large proportions of dementia cases might be delayed or prevented if there was effective control of modifiable risk factors (‘modifiable’ because they can be changed or treated).
  To improve our understanding of how big this problem is (i.e the prevalence rates), large research studies across the world have been created to monitor participant’s health over time, including their memory. Having large numbers of participants studied from a range of backgrounds and countries allow us to be more confident that our findings are accurate. However, tests for memory differ slightly across these countries which makes current comparison of results difficult.
  The HCAP cognitive battery was developed within the Health and Retirement study in North America, an example of one of the international ageing studies. The research team there found that using the HCAP battery, they were able to accurately separate participants into groups based on their performance on the HCAP. Next steps include repeating the HCAP in Irish ageing studies (known as the NICOLA/ TILDA studies). However as the HCAP was developed with participants from North America we need to be sure that the HCAP is as accurate in separating participants into groups based on their memory in a Northern Irish group. To do this we complete the HCAP assessment and compare the diagnosis that it gives the participant and compare that to the diagnosis given to them by a Consultant Geriatrician in the memory clinic they have recently attended using current standard memory assessment tools. This is called a clinical validation study.
  

• REC name

  HSC REC B

• REC reference

  22/NI/0007

• Date of REC Opinion

  21 Jun 2022

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion