How to identify dementia in people with hearing loss – alert by the NIHR
The first reliable test for dementia in people with hearing loss has been produced.
This new alert from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) from August 2023 summarises a recent study which has resulted in the first reliable test for dementia in people with hearing loss. Hearing loss is more common as you get older and therefore many people with dementia are also living with hearing loss. Many current dementia tests use spoken questions which rely on good hearing which could result in a misdiagnosis, whereas in this study, spoken questions were replaced with written ones.
The study evaluated 256 people aged 60 and over from England, Ireland and Australia, some with known dementia and hearing loss and some without. Some took just the revised test and some both the original and new versions and the new test was found to be accurate and reliable. It is also accurate in people without hearing loss.
Find out more here on the NIHR website.
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