Free-Cog
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A novel, free to use, measure of combined cognitive and functional abilities for clinical use.
IRAS ID
227062
Contact name
Alistair Burns
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Background:
As many cognitive tests used in the NHS at present are subject to copyright, producing a validated copyright free cognitive testing tool is important to prevent unnecessary expenditure from the health service budget. This study sets out to validate the Free Combined cognitive and functional assessment (FREE-COG) as an alternative. This tests aims to reflect a more holistic assessment to indicate areas of further testing to the clinician.
Aims: To test the FREE-COG in naturalistic clinical settings to compare scores with existing, commonly used cognitive tests. We hypothesise that there will be no significant difference between the FREE-COG and these tests.
Methods: 500 patients with known or suspected mild cognitive impairment/ dementia would be recruited by clinicians/researchers. They would complete the FREE-COG in a situation where clinically cognitive testing would be used and subsequently complete clinical cognitive test in current standard NHS practice. We will also aim to recruit 250 healthy controls who may be carers or both participant groups can be identified utilising the Join Dementia Research Service.Future : Non-English language, culturally appropriate versions of the FREE-COG are proposed and further more extensive studies in other patient populations, including comparisons between different dementia populations (eg comparing outcomes Alzheimer’s dementia vs vascular dementia, Mild Cognitive Impairment and healthy volunteers).
REC name
North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/NW/0572
Date of REC Opinion
4 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion