Validation Of The Flemish Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) For Persons With Hearing Impairment

Recruiting

Interventions: Behavioral: Cognitive screening
Behavioral: Audiological Assessment

Brief Summary: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a screening test for detecting cognitive impairment that assesses several cognitive domains (attention and concentration, arithmetic and orientation, memory, etc.). The instructions as well as some test items of the MoCA are presented auditory (spoken). Consequently, performance on the MoCA may be co-dependent on hearing. Therefore, to rule out the possible negative influence of hearing loss on performance on the MoCA, a MoCA for individuals with hearing loss was recently developed. More specifically, the original MoCA was modified by providing the instructions audiovisually (spoken with visual support) as well as by replacing hearing-dependent items. Since replacing items may affect sensitivity and specificity, the MoCA for persons with hearing loss should be revalidated.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Individuals aged 60 years or older
Individuals with normal vision (with lenses or glasses if needed)
Individuals with age-related hearing loss
Dutch-speaking individuals
Individuals capable of giving consent to participate in the study themselves
Individuals still residing in their own homes
Individuals with an official diagnosis of dementia (Alzheimer's, vascular, or mixed) or mild cognitive impairment. This inclusion criterion applies only to the group with cognitive impairment.

Exclusion Criteria

For individuals without cognitive impairment, the following exclusion criteria apply:

(History of) neurological problems (brain tumor, epilepsy, history of stroke, etc.)
Use of influencing medication (e.g., Ritalin and antidepressants)

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Individuals (>45 years) with age-normal cognition and hearing loss	Cognitive screening	All tests will be administered.
Individuals (>45 years) with dementia (Alzheimer, vascular or mixed) and hearing loss	Cognitive screening	All tests will be administered.
Individuals (>45 years) with mild cognitive impairment and hearing loss	Audiological Assessment	All tests will be administered.
Individuals (>45 years) with age-normal cognition and hearing loss	Audiological Assessment	All tests will be administered.
Individuals (>45 years) with mild cognitive impairment and hearing loss	Cognitive screening	All tests will be administered.
Individuals (>45 years) with dementia (Alzheimer, vascular or mixed) and hearing loss	Audiological Assessment	All tests will be administered.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Hearing-related quality of life	This parameter will be assessed once during the first study visit of the patient. Test duration is approximately 15 minutes.	Mean scores will be calculated for each subdomain separately (auditory-visual, cognitive, and psychosocial functioning) as well as combined within a total score. The scores can range from 0 to 100 whereby the worse one's hearing-related quality of life, the lower the score.
MoCA-HI	This parameter will be assessed once (during the first study visit) or twice (during the second study visit 4 weeks later), depending on the random selection for the test-retest group. Test duration is approximately 15 minutes.	The result (max 30) on the MoCA-HI will be calculated.
Hearing status	This parameter will be assessed once during the first study visit of the patient. Test duration is approximately 20 minutes.	Based on the results of the tympanometry and pure-tone audiometry the hearing status of the participant will be classified as normal or abnormal. In case of abnormal hearing, the type and severity will be specified.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method

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