Dementia research funding aims for a worldwide impact

Improving care for adults with dementia is the focus of a fresh research drive at the University of East Anglia, which has been awarded a £2m grant by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR).

The largest dementia grant of its kind awarded by the NIHR, the funding will allow the University to complete a 5-year programme exploring why hospital care often fails to achieve any form of rehabilitation for individuals with dementia, often worsening rather than bettering their condition.

Dr Chris Fox, the programme’s leader from Norwich Medical School, discusses the challenges ahead, saying: “People with dementia are admitted to hospital for a range of reasons. Fractures and other injuries from falls are common, along with reasons such as heart attacks, strokes, or diabetes.

“It is particularly difficult to care for people with dementia because they can’t remember what has happened to them. They don’t know why they’re in hospital. And many will end up worse off than before they came in.

“An injury such as a fractured hip often leads to acute confusion known as delirium and other complications. These are linked to a very negative outcome on people’s lives with impairment of function, independence and quality of life. This in turn causes distress for individuals and their families and is also associated with significant care costs.

“On average, people with a hip fracture in addition to dementia stay in hospital three times longer than those with a hip fracture who do not have dementia. They also have a much lower survival rate (up to 40 per cent mortality).

“There is good quality evidence which shows that preventing acute confusion, and other dementia-specific care challenges, is possible. But this standard of care is not being routinely implemented.”

The medical team will aim to produce a set of guidelines to better inform carers on the positive methods of rehabilitation for individuals with memory loss, alongside effective staff training materials that Dr Fox hopes will ultimately have a worldwide impact.

Researchers will collaborate with a number of mental health experts, including charities Alzheimer’s Society and Dementia UK, as well as US expert in ageing brain care Dr Malaz Boustani of Indiana University’s School of Medicine.

Dr Boustani welcomes the announcement, commenting: “Here at Indiana University, we are taking advantage of the new tools of implementation science by integrating it within health care practise.

“This study will be a great example of utilising the tools of implementation science to develop, evaluate and implement innovative and real world models of care that would lead to better care and health – at a lower cost.”

Although the study will take place at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the plan is to involve 10 more hospitals after three years, before a four-year trial rolling out the guidelines across the whole NHS.