COVID-19 dementia research receives strong support during lockdown

The coronavirus pandemic has posed unique challenges to the delivery of dementia research.

Thanks to our amazing Join Dementia Research volunteers, during lockdown we have been able to continue recruiting participants to studies such as questionnaires that don’t involve person-to-person contact.

In particular thousands of our volunteers have taken part in important studies relating to COVID-19 and dementia.

The SleepQuest study

Led by researchers at the University of Bristol, the SleepQuest study aimed to discover how the pandemic was affecting sleep in the UK.

The questionnaire study opened at the start of April, and by the time it closed on 1 July over 3,500 Join Dementia Research volunteers had taken part – 80% of the total study participants.

By generously sharing their experiences, study participants provided researchers with a valuable insight into the impact that the outbreak is having on mental health and dementia prevention.

This will now allow the researchers to create guidance on how to manage sleep during this crisis and beyond, to help people protect their sleep both in the short and long-term.

We will share more details of the study results here on our website when they become available.

Impact of COVID-19 closures

Many of the face-to-face services people with dementia and their carers often rely on were temporarily closed due to the pandemic.

In April, the University of Liverpool brought together a national team of NHS, voluntary and academic collaborators to investigate what effect this was having.

An impressive 563 Join Dementia Research volunteers kindly donated their time to take part in this questionnaire study. This was 88% of the total study participants, and well over the initial target of 150 people.

The research team is now analysing these responses to understand the immediate and longer-term implications of COVID-19 related closures on people with dementia and their carers.

They will present some of their findings at the Liverpool Dementia and Ageing Research Forum in September 2020.