Research

The Dementia HIT research workstream is led by two Directors: Professor Rik Cheston, Professor of Mental Health Research (Dementia), University of the West of England (UWE) and Professor Yoav Ben-Shlomo, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, University of Bristol.

Take part in our new Attitudes to Dementia survey 2018/19

The new Attitudes to Dementia online survey 2018/19 is now live. Feel free to participate and share with friends, family, neighbours and colleagues. In 2013 the Bristol Dementia Health Integration Team carried out a survey exploring attitudes to dementia in and around Bristol. The new 2018/19 survey aims to see if attitudes to dementia have changed over the last five years. It will collect more information about how people feel about dementia, and the level of support they might be prepared to give to a neighbour who had dementia.here are many research projects taking place across Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

The survey has been developed by Professor Rik Cheston and colleagues at the University of the West of England (UWE) including with support from Alzheimer's Research UK.

How you can get involved in dementia research

In our video 'How to get involved in dementia research in Bristol' you can hear about the kind of dementia research taking place in the Bristol area and why you might like to consider taking part in research.

"I see no reason to not do something that could help me and other people," says Pat, a person living with dementia, who is involved in dementia research.

To find out more about dementia research opportunities, sign up to receive the Dementia HIT Research newsletter or email us at dementia@bristolhealthpartners.org.uk.

Local dementia research projects

There are many research projects taking place across Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Research topics are wide-ranging and include:

  • The University of the West of England (UWE) spoke to older people and their families from African-Caribbean, Chinese and South Asian communities in Bristol in order to find out about the experiences of people with dementia. Download the full report (PDF) and the report’s supplementary information (PDF). You can also hear about the experiences of dementia of people from BME communities in this film:
  • Research by Dr Robin Holmes into neuroimaging analysis in dementia, see a film explaining this work
  • A hippocampal imaging study run at CRIC Bristol by the ReMemBr group

  • Clinical trials to determine if existing medications help to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, for example the RADAR study
  • Psychosocial aspects of dementia, for example exploring changes in quality of life for participants with early diagnosis dementia who attend a living well with dementia group
  • Neuroepidemiology to explore the distribution and determinants of dementia, such as the Caerphilly prospective study
  • Biomarkers for dementia, such as exploring proteins in the brain
  • Improving diagnosis of dementia in general practice

The range of research undertaken is summarised in this report, table, and the results of the research survey undertaken by the Dementia HIT.

There are two universities in Bristol who undertake a range of dementia-related research. In each university, dementia-related research takes place in a number of schools and departments:

Join Dementia Research (JDR) is a place where people living with dementia or people without dementia who are interested in taking part in research can join a research register. Signing up is the first step in becoming involved in supporting vital research. The JDR team have produced an animation demonstrating how it works, and a documentary which explains why taking part in research is vital.

Hilary Doxford is living with dementia. She is an ambassador and Research Network volunteer for Alzheimer’s Society. Hilary also supports BRACE, is a champion for Join Dementia Research, is a member of World Dementia Council, and a former vice-chair of Alzheimer’s Europe. In the video below, Hilary’s husband filmed her talking about the importance of research:


University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)

University of Bristol

In addition to the universities' researchers, there are active research departments within each of the NHS partner organisations:

Other research organisations the Dementia HIT work closely with include;

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