Role of pharmacists in supporting people living with dementia at home
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An investigation of how people living at home (PLWDH) with dementia manage their medicines and the role of community pharmacists in supporting this process.
IRAS ID
238266
Contact name
Paul Dourandish
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bradford
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
In the UK, 850,000 people currently live with dementia, of which two-thirds live in their own home. For people living with dementia at home (PLWDH), impaired cognition, together with possible transitions in physical and mental health can interfere with a person’s independence including managing their medicines, especially as their condition progresses. This poses a risk of developing medicines-related problems and negative outcomes such as unnecessary hospital or care home admissions. Consultation with service users and providers revealed some of those medicines issues facing PLWDH, their families and health care professionals in current practice. Building on this, a review of existing literature revealed four main themes and in particularly, highlighted that the views of PLWDH and community pharmacists were profoundly lacking. As a result, these perspectives are a priority for further research, to better understand how PLWDH manage their medicines, establish the community pharmacist role and what is required from them to support this patient group. To achieve this, we would like to arrange group meetings and/or individual interviews with PLWDH and community pharmacists to discuss any medicines challenges, routines or coping strategies that participants may have. Information obtained will be organised using computer software, bringing these various sources of information together to discover those issues most relevant to answering the research questions. A range of analytical techniques may be used to generate themes, contributing to the development of a conceptual framework, which will be written up as part of the final report.
REC name
East of England - Essex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/EE/0113
Date of REC Opinion
14 Jul 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion