Treating Auditory impairment and CogniTion (TACT) pilot trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Treating Auditory impairment and CogniTion: A randomised, single-blind, parallel, pilot trial in older adults with mild cognitive impairment and hearing loss of an intervention to provide and support hearing aid use vs a healthy ageing intervention for dementia risk.
IRAS ID
246188
Contact name
Sergi Costafreda Gonzalez
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2018/05/104, UCL data protection registration
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
It is a new finding that hearing loss is major risk factor for subsequent dementia. Hearing loss increases dementia risk more than lacking education, being diabetic or depressed or having a poor diet. Therefore, untreated hearing loss may be a missed opportunity to delay and prevent dementia in a substantial number of people, but we need research to find out if treating hearing loss is effective. We want to find out if a hearing aid intervention can prevent or delay the onset of dementia in older adults who are at greater risk of developing dementia (i.e. those with mild cognitive impairment). Before we can do a full trial to answer this question, we need to run a pilot trial to see if we can recruit participants and assess the acceptability of the proposed interventions.
We plan to compare two interventions in this pilot trial. The hearing intervention will involve hearing aid provision and support over four sessions, while the healthy ageing intervention will involve standard audiological care (i.e. the participant will be informed of their hearing loss and advised to see their GP) and four one-to-one sessions with a researcher on behavioural changes that can promote healthy ageing and may reduce risk of progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia.
We will recruit people aged 55 years and over, who have a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment and evidence of hearing loss.Participants will be recruited from local London memory services and the trial visits will be conducted in the participants’ homes.
Each eligible participant will receive seven visits over six months, including the four intervention sessions. At two of the visits (baseline and follow up) they will be asked to complete some cognitive and mood assessments.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/1196
Date of REC Opinion
24 Aug 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion