Development of the Reading Cognitive Test Kyoto (ReaCT Kyoto) for Early Detection of Cognitive Decline in Patients with Hearing Loss

Abstract

Background: Early detection of cognitive decline allows timely intervention to delay progression of dementia. However, current cognitive evaluation tools often include items delivered via verbal forms of instruction, which can cause poor performance in patients with hearing loss. Objective: To develop and validate a cognitive screening battery, the Reading Cognitive Test Kyoto (ReaCT Kyoto), comprising test items given through non-verbal instruction. Methods: A cross-sectional and multi-center study was conducted in the three medical institutes. ReaCT Kyoto was designed to evaluate domains of "registration," "repetition," "delayed recall," "visuospatial recognition," "orientation in time and place," and "executive function." The Japanese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination Test (MMSE-J) and ReaCT Kyoto were applied by experienced psychotherapists. Concurrent validity was evaluated between the ReaCT Kyoto Test and MMSE-J and between the ReaCT Kyoto Test and physician-diagnosed dementia. Results: ReaCT Kyoto was validated in a sample of 115 participants. The mean age of subjects was 81.0 ± 6.4 years, and the sample comprised 53.0% females. The area under the receiver operating curves was 0.95 for detecting physician-diagnosed dementia. When classifying patients in accordance with presence or absence of hearing loss, the AUCs were 0.93 and 0.97 for those with and without hearing loss, respectively. With a cutoff score of < 29 points for suspected dementia, ReaCT Kyoto correctly classified 90.4% of the subjects as belonging to the group with or without physician-diagnosed dementia. Conclusion: ReaCT Kyoto provides an appropriate solution for detection of cognitive impairment in persons with or without hearing loss.

The Nexus of Sensory Loss, Cognitive Impairment, and Functional Decline in Older Adults: A Scoping Review

“…New developments in cognitive tests for people with sensory loss are underway. Examples of these new developments include tactile-based cognitive tests for people with dual sensory loss, reading administration procedure for people with hearing loss, and oral administration procedure for people with vision loss (Bruhn & Dammeyer, 2018;Dawes, Pye, et al, 2019;Okano et al, 2020). Given the high prevalence of vision and hearing loss in older adults, future studies are encouraged to consider these new developments in cognitive tests.…”

Changes of the Brain Causal Connectivity Networks in Patients With Long-Term Bilateral Hearing Loss

“…However, the use of auditorily presented cognitive tests might have biased the results. In addition, we only investigated resting-state causal connectivity, and these results might be different with stimulus-related connectivity ( Okano et al, 2020 ; Yusuf et al, 2021 ).…”

Impact of Hearing Loss on Geriatric Assessment

“…The ReaCT Kyoto, a Japanese test instrument, was introduced by Okano in 2020. 82 It includes measures on registration, repletion, delayed recall, visuospatial recognition, executive functions as measured by verbal fluency and orientation; it has already been applied in 115 healthy subjects and subjects with cognitive impairment with a sensitivity of 90%. To date, this test instrument is only available in Japanese.…”

“…The ReaCT Kyoto, a Japanese test instrument, was introduced by Okano in 2020. 82 It includes measures on registration, repletion, delayed recall, visuospatial recognition, executive functions as measured by verbal fluency and orientation; it has submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com…”

“…To date, this test instrument is only available in Japanese. 82 A new approach was introduced by Bruhn in 2018. A Tactile Test Battery (TTB) comprising established standard tests transformed for tactile use was applied to 60 subjects, 20 of them with dementia, 20 with dual sensory impairment, and 20 controls aged 63-92.…”