Inequalities in primary care for people with dementia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding and addressing inequalities within the quality and safety of care and outcomes for people living with dementia.
IRAS ID
326264
Contact name
Charlotte Morris
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
23_002686, CPRD protocol reference number
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 4 months, 18 days
Research summary
After diagnosis, guidelines suggest healthcare for people with dementia should be community based where possible. There are recommendations to ensure this healthcare is high-quality and safe. Few studies have looked at how/why recommended healthcare processes and key outcomes vary with socio-economic factors.
This study will explore how recommended care varies with a marker of deprivation (the index of multiple deprivation measure). It will explore why this might happen by exploring the views of people with dementia, carers and healthcare workers from these areas. It is important we understand this, as dementia disproportionately affects people from poorer backgrounds.
There are three aspects to the study:
1. A database containing anonymous data for >12 million people will be analysed. People with dementia, aged >18 years, diagnosed from 2006 onwards will be included and followed up for up to 10 years. We will analyse how ‘care processes’ ( such as care planning, prescribing) and ‘outcomes’ (such as hospital attendances, falls), vary with socio-economic factors.
2. 15-20 people with dementia and carers from areas of deprivation will be interviewed about their experiences of primary care. Interviews will be recorded. Texts will be reviewed and themes will be established.
3. Two workshops including people with dementia, carers, community-based healthcare workers and local/national policy makers will be conducted. The workshops will use systems thinking methodology to understand existing systems providing care and generate ideas of how these could be strengthened.
The study is funded by the School for Primary Care Research/Wellcome PhD programme for primary care clinicians: PhD Programme for Primary Care Clinicians — NIHR School for Primary Care Research.
This study will provide evidence of existing inequalities in primary care for people with dementia, help understand why these differences exist, and generate ideas for reducing inequality. Generated ideas will feed into existing recommendations for providing care.REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/WM/0102
Date of REC Opinion
29 May 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion