Dementia incidence and Welsh-English bilingualism: a spatial analysis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Dementia incidence and Welsh-English bilingualism: a spatial analysis
IRAS ID
225215
Contact name
Chris Saville
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
School of Psychology, Bangor University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
2017-16071, Bangor University School of Psychology Ethics Committee reference number
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Research Summary
A number of studies suggest that being bilingual helps to protect people from developing dementia. In the proposed study, we hypothesise that areas where Welsh-English bilingualism is widespread will have lower rates of dementia than areas which are relatively monolingual English.
We propose accessing routinely collected patient data from memory clinics and inpatient admissions in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, including post codes, ages, and diagnoses. We will then link these data to data from the UK census to compute dementia rates and bilingualism rates for every small census area in the health board before seeing if there is a statistical relationship between these variables.
Summary of Results
Rates of dementia diagnoses in parts of northwest Wales where more people spoke Welsh seemed to be higher at older ages but lower at younger ages. This might mean that bilingual people develop dementia at an older age.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
17/WS/0186
Date of REC Opinion
22 Aug 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion