Living with dementia and managing medicines. V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A qualitative, observation study exploring how people affected with mild-moderate dementia manage their medicines and how primary care based healthcare professionals could provide better support.
IRAS ID
222968
Contact name
Eleanor Dann-Reed
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of East Anglia
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Dementia is a group of diseases that affect the brain and cause people to have symptoms such as memory loss and confusion. These possible symptoms could cause difficulties with the ordering, collection, storing, organising and taking (collectively known as managing), of any medicines that people living with dementia may be prescribed or buy themselves. These difficulties could lead to medical conditions not being treated properly and could lead to the person being admitted to hospital.
This study aims to explore how people living with mild-moderate dementia manage their medicines in the context of their everyday life routines to identify ways healthcare professionals such as community pharmacists could support these patients better.
This study will consist of 10 – 20 singular visits by the researcher to the homes of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) patients. The patients will have a recent diagnosis of mild-moderate dementia and live at home on their own or with an informal carer. Potential participants will be identified and contacted by the community mental health nurses that work within the NSFT with the help of a recruiting checklist made by the researcher.
The visits will last a maximum of three hours and each visit will be audio-recorded. Photographs of medicines management will be taken where appropriate. The researcher will arrive at a mutually agreed time and will follow the participants carrying out their usual routine, whilst asking questions relating to what they see with an emphasis on their medicines management.
The research data will be searched for common themes and the results will be presented in a variety of ways including the researcher’s PhD thesis and to the NSFT research team.
This research forms part of a PhD study programme funded by Rosemont Pharmaceuticals. They have had no input in the design of this study.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/YH/0276
Date of REC Opinion
8 Aug 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion