Hearing Impairment as a Risk Factor for Dementia in Older Adults

Modifiable Risk Factors and Dementia - A Study Examining the Association Between Hearing Impairment in Mid-life and Cognitive Impairment in the HUNT4 70+ Study

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT04284384

Enrollment

6952

Registered

2020-02-25

Start date

2019-08-19

Completion date

2020-11-20

Last updated

2021-09-14

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Dementia, Hearing Loss

Brief summary

This Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) project is part of a larger project on potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia in a life course perspective, with an overarching aim to improve prevention of dementia and thereby potentially relieve patient and caregiver distress and decrease societal load. The present PhD project will concentrate on confirming knowledge of HI as an independent risk factor for dementia and exploring potentially causative factors to explain this relationship.

Detailed description

Despite a huge increase in the knowledge about disease mechanisms in various types of dementia in recent years, no curative treatment exists at present. Results from research on disease-modifying agents have been disappointing. This has led to an increased interest in other ways to reduce the prevalence of dementia. A recent report estimated that up to one third of dementia cases could be delayed or prevented by interventions directed at the most common risk factors. In the Lancet commission on dementia prevention, treatment, and care, hearing impairment (HI) was identified as the potentially most important modifiable risk factor. Even though HI is considered an important modifiable risk factor, the evidence regarding the association between HI and dementia risk is still limited.

Interventions

None listed

Study design

Observational model

COHORT

Time perspective

PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

70 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Living in designated area

Exclusion criteria

* None

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Rate of dementia diagnosis in the HUNT 70+ study	2017-2019	Two clinical and scientific experts will independently set at diagnosis of cognitive impairment or dementia based on all available information applying standard diagnostic criteria Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM-5).
Rate of Minimal Cognitive Impairment (MCI) in the HUNT 70+ study	2017-2019	Two clinical and scientific experts will independently set at diagnosis of cognitive impairment or dementia based on all available information applying standard diagnostic criteria DSM-5.
Rate of cognitive impairment defined as age- and education-adjusted thresholds on cognitive assessments scales	2017-2019	The participants have been assessed with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment scale and the ten-word recall test

Countries

Norway

Outcome results