Social participation and changes in hearing ability

从大规模纵向研究中得出的越来越多的证据表明，痴呆有12种可改变的风险因素。这包括治疗听力障碍和保持频繁的社会接触等预防措施。听力和社会参与与痴呆症早期症状之间的复杂关系尚不完全清楚。在我的MRes研究项目中，我研究了涉及言语和非言语活动的社会参与与自我报告的听力能力、噪音中的言语表现和痴呆的亚临床症状之间的关系。本项目将从先前的研究中吸取教训，改进用于衡量社会参与和听力能力变化的问卷。使用COSMIN（基于共识的健康测量工具选择标准）方法，我将审查目前使用的工具，然后与该领域的老年人和专家进行焦点小组讨论，将对问卷进行改进，以了解社会参与、老年人听力变化及其测量的重要方面。在一个小组的预测试之后，评估新工具在自我报告的认知能力、听力能力和声学测试分数方面的预测功能。测试将在两个时间点进行，从而能够测量变化。考虑到与痴呆症相关的护理负担的预期增长，以及我们对一些风险因素是可以改变的理解，从理论上讲，这一提出的新工具将是初级卫生保健和公共卫生更广泛背景下的有价值的工具。对社会参与和听力进行可靠和有效的测量，可以快速和大规模地实施，这为研究人员和临床医生提供了一种工具，可以帮助研究和规划干预措施（如社会处方，但也可以更广泛地识别痴呆症的风险）并进行长期监测。

A growing body of evidence drawn from large-scale longitudinal studies recognises twelve modifiable risk factors for dementia. This includes the preventative measures of treating hearing impairment and maintaining frequent social contact. The complex relationship between hearing and social participation and the early signs of dementia is yet to be fully understood. In my MRes research project, I examined how social participation involving speech and non-speech activities relates to self-reported hearing ability, speech-in-noise performance, and sub-clinical symptoms of dementia. This project would seek to take the learnings from the previous study to refine the questionnaire used to measure social participation and changes in hearing ability. Using the COSMIN (COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments) methodology, I will review the tools currently in use before conducting focus groups with older adults and experts within the field, the questionnaire will be refined to understand important aspects of social participation, hearing changes in older age and its measurement. After pre-testing with a small group, evaluate the predictive function of the new tool in relation to self-reported cognitive ability, hearing ability and acoustic test scores. Testing would be conducted at two-time points would enable measurement of change.Given the anticipated growth in the burden of care related to dementia and our understanding that some risk factors are modifiable, in theory, this proposed new tool would be a valuable tool in a broader context of both primary healthcare and also public health. Having a reliable and valid measure of social participation and hearing that can be administered quickly and at scale provides researchers and clinicians with a tool that may aid in research and planning intervention (such as social prescribing but also more widely in identifying risks of dementia) and monitoring over time.