Validating clinical neuropsychological assessments for Welsh speakers
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Validating clinical neuropsychological assessments for the purposes of testing Welsh speaking (bilingual) participants.
IRAS ID
251705
Contact name
Jeremy Tree
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Swansea University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
19/EE/0071, East of England- Cambridge South; 19/LO/0491, Bromley - London
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The objective of the project is to empirically validate two major clinical cognitive assessments for the purposes of testing Welsh speaking (bilingual) participants - motivated by two complimentary strands of work. Firstly, consultative research conducted in Wales has determined that there is growing desire amongst persons living with dementia and their carers, to have the option for testing through the medium of Welsh (My Language, My Health, WG, 2012). Moreover, the independent Older People’s Commissioner for Wales published a dementia care report (More Than Just Memory Loss, WG, 2016) that identified the lack of cross-language cognitive assessment/services, as a key challenge raised by service users, and reflects an emerging demand from Welsh speakers to have dementia assessment materials validated in Welsh. It is likely such repeated requests reflect issues such as the simple comfort and ease of using Welsh, to ameliorate stressful clinical setting situations. Secondly, experimental research into the consequences of bilingualism competency in the context of neuropsychological populations (including dementia) revealed that following brain damage, bilingual and monolingual individuals may diverge in testing of memory, language and attention with respect to a common language. Put simply, testing through the medium of English may inadvertently hamper performance for bilingual versus monolingual English speakers. It is therefore critical that individuals have access to cognitive assessments in their preferred (dominant) language. Unfortunately, despite clear demand, well-validated Welsh language clinical cognitive assessments are still not available. This is despite the fact that several cognitive assessments have in fact already been translated into Welsh - including the Addenbrookes Cognitive Examination-III (ACE-III), and the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). However, these assessment batteries have not been administered to a large cohort of healthy controls and thus remain to be validated, meaning they cannot be considered reliable clinical tools. Validation is only possible via extensive, systematic assessment of a large cross-section of healthy older adult bilingual Welsh-English speakers and a group of bilingual individuals living with dementia.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0419
Date of REC Opinion
29 Apr 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion