Prevalence of Cognitive Decline in Patients Presenting with ARHL
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring the Prevalence of Cognitive Decline in Patients Presenting with Age Related Hearing Loss or Impairment
IRAS ID
263762
Contact name
Jaydip Ray
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS FT
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Dementia is the greatest global challenge for health and social care in the 21st century, currently affecting 850,000 people in the UK. Hearing loss has been consistently identified as an easily corrected risk factor for dementia. The commonest cause of hearing loss in older adults is Age-Related Hearing Impairment (ARHI) and the commonest treatment for this is Hearing Aid (HA) provision. ARHI has been consistently identified as a potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia. However many people with ARHI are not formally tested for memory loss which can therefore go undetected until it is more advanced.
It is possible that by not recognising and adequately treating memory loss early in older people, current services are contributing to the increasing burden of dementia. Because of this, it is proposed that clinicians dealing with hearing problems should systematically screen for early signs of dementia.
We propose to introduce a memory test within the hearing assessment service to see how many persons have undetected memory problems. This will inform practice in hearing and memory clinics and hopefully have a beneficial effect on progression of memory if detected and treated early.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/EM/0274
Date of REC Opinion
11 Nov 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion