Social connection in long-term care home residents
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Social connection in long-term care home residents (SONNET) study
IRAS ID
306814
Contact name
Andrew Sommerlad
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2021/11/23 , UCL Data Protection Registration Number
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 31 days
Research summary
Research question
Can we develop an accurate and reliable way of measuring the social connection of people with dementia who live in care homes?What new information will our project provide?
Social connection is important for all people. However, people with dementia often experience decline in the quantity and quality of their connection with others. Those who live in care homes are particularly at risk because their dementia is more severe and they live away from previous social contacts. We need to be able to measure social connection accurately, as it is important for people living in these settings and so we can develop and test new treatments. There is no current optimum way to do this, so we will work with people living with dementia, LTC residents, families, care providers and researchers to develop and test a new approach.How will we get our data?
We will review previous approaches to measurement in research on social connection, and assess how well those work. We will then speak to 20-35 people affected by dementia, healthcare professionals, and care home staff in the UK (and an additional 20-35 in Canada) to establish which aspects of social connection are important. Then we will use our findings to develop a new measurement approach and will test how well it measures social connection in diverse settings in the UK and Canada – we will test the measure in 75 long-term care residents in the UK and 75 in Canada.How will our results impact people with dementia?
We will create a new measure which we aim to be the most accurate and reliable way to measure social connection. This will support researchers and healthcare services to prioritise social connection for a vulnerable group. Our study will also allow researchers and professionals to better evaluate the accuracy of previous research.REC name
London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0145
Date of REC Opinion
12 Apr 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion