AUTHOR=Utoomprurkporn Nattawan , Stott Joshua , Costafreda Sergi G. , North Courtney , Heatley Mary , Bamiou Doris Eva 

TITLE=The Screening Accuracy of a Visually Based Montreal Cognitive Assessment Tool for Older Adult Hearing Aid Users

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2021.706282

DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2021.706282

ISSN=1663-4365

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objectives</title><p>This research aims to validate a modified visually based Montreal Cognitive Assessment for hearing-aid users (MoCA-HA). This population should be the target of cognitive screening due to high risk of developing dementia.</p></sec><sec><title>Design</title><p>Case-control study.</p></sec><sec><title>Setting</title><p>The participants were recruited from referral hearing-aid center and memory clinic in central London, United Kingdom.</p></sec><sec><title>Participant</title><p>75 hearing-aid users were recruited. Of these, thirty were cognitively intact controls with hearing impairment (NC-HI); thirty had mild cognitive impairment with hearing impairment (MCI-HI); fifteen had dementia with hearing impairment (D-HI).</p></sec><sec><title>Measurements</title><p>The baseline characteristics and analysis of the MoCA-HA for the NC-HI were recorded. The MoCA-HA performance of the MCI-HI cohort and D-HI cohort were also studied.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The cutpoint of &lt;26 yields 93.3% sensitivity with 80% specificity in distinguishing MCI-HI from NC-HI. The specificity increased to 95.6% in screening for all cognitive impairment (MCI-HI and D-HI) from NC-HI.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>The MoCA-HA has been validated with a cutpoint which is comparable to the traditional MoCA. This tool may help clinicians to early identify older adult hearing-aid users for appropriate cognitive evaluation.</p></sec>