The UK Funnel Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A Pilot Study to Investigate the Operational Feasibility and Screening Effectiveness of Telephonic Administration of Scales for the Assessment of Possible Cognitive Impairment in Primary Care Practice Settings.
IRAS ID
134797
Contact name
Lefkos Middleton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
MedImmune Limited
Research summary
Individuals with early complaints of memory are common in primary care settings. These complaints are often correctly attributed to normal age-related cognitive decline but in some cases they are early signs of a more serious neurodegenerative disorder. Screening methods that can effectively separate abnormal from normal memory complaints and that can be easily deployed in primary care practice settings would be valuable adjuncts to primary patient care. These methods would also facilitate the identification of participants with early memory problems who are potentially more suitable for inclusion in treatment studies of disease modifying therapeutics for disease like Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
It is widely thought that treatment of AD with disease modifying drugs requires intervention at the earliest possible stage of the illness; once an individual develops frank dementia, the opportunity to intervene effectively may no longer exist. Indeed, numerous studies testing possible therapies for AD have recently failed, possibly because of the inclusion of inappropriate participants. Participants are typically selected from secondary care centres where they may already be considerably advanced and not able to respond to a disease modifying therapy, even if the therapy is effective. By identifying a testing method/process that can effectively be used to identify participants with early AD in primary care settings, this testing method/process may be deployed to identify participants for participation in future clinical trials of investigational drugs in AD.
We aim to:
(1) To determine the feasibility and effectiveness of a standardized phone interview to administer a cognitive battery assessment to identify individuals with cognitive or memory impairment, among those with a subjective memory complaint.
(2) To evaluate the impact (e.g., satisfaction, burden, evaluations, risk, benefits) of the phone interview.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/YH/0286
Date of REC Opinion
23 Sep 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion