Assessing dementia risk in general practice

Assessing dementia risk in general practice: A qualitative study of the attitudes and views of patients and the public

Project Lead: Professor Louise Robinson
 
Project Team: Dr Stephan Blossom, Dr Greta Rait, Dr Kate Walters, Professor Nadeem Qureshi
 
In the United Kingdom (UK), there are over 800,000 people with dementia.  Dementia has a huge impact on both families who live with the illness and our healthcare with care costs around £26 billion.  England has recently introduced dementia 'case finding'.  This is where GPs or nurses ask people, who are at high risk of getting dementia whether they have symptoms of dementia.  Some people are "at risk of dementia" because they have other health problems like Parkinson's disease and diabetes or have had a stroke.  This policy has been introduced with little testing.  We do not know whether case finding: i) is effective; ii) what patients and general practice staff think about it and iii) whether there are any harms or benefits.
 
We will seek the views of a range of people about assessing dementia risk in GP including case finding in people who are at a higher risk of dementia.  We are particularly interested in the views of certain groups of people: i) those at high risk of developing dementia (e.g. family history, past stroke); ii) those who had experienced case finding in primary care; iii) different ages and ethnic groups.
 
We will tape the interviews and review them to see what is said and what issues come out.  Data collection is completed; 6 focus groups were undertaken with 31 participants and data analysis is ongoing. 
 
Outputs
 
Robinson L, Dickinson C, Magklara E, Newton L, Prato L, Bamford C.  Proactive approaches to identifying dementia and dementia risk; a qualitative study of public attitudes and preferences.  BMJ Open July 2017
 
Robinson J – Exploring the knowledge and attitudes of medical students towards earlier dementia diagnosis and prevention in general practice in the UK.  WONCA Conference, 15-18 June 2016, Copenhagen, Denmark.
 
Newton L, Dickinson C, Rait G, Wilcock J, Walters K, Robinson, J and Robinson L. WONCA 2016 (Copenhagen).  “Assessing dementia risk in general practice: what does the public think and what do family doctors need to know?”
 
Newton L, Dickinson C, Robinson L. International Psychogeriatric Association 2016 (San Francisco). “Assessing dementia risk in general practice: a qualitative study of the attitudes and views of members of the public”.
 
Newton L, Dickinson C, Robinson L. Clinical Commissioning Group event 2016: “Assessing dementia risk in General Practice: A qualitative study of the attitudes and views of patients and the public”.
 
Robinson L – Care commissioning for end of life care and dementia: how evidence based is current practice. Society for Academic Primary Care, 6-8th July 2016, Dublin Castle, Dublin.
 
Robinson J.  Exploring the knowledge and attitudes of medical students towards earlier dementia diagnosis and prevention in general practice in the UK.  WONCA Conference, 15-18 June 2016, Copenhagen, Denmark.
 
Newton L, Dickinson C, Rait G, Wilcock J, Walters K, Robinson J and Robinson L.  Assessing dementia risk in general practice: what does the public think and what do family doctors need to know?  WONCA Conference, 15-18 June 2016, Copenhagen, Denmark.
 
Newton L, Dickinson C, Robinson L.  Assessing dementia risk in general practice: a qualitative study of the attitudes and views of members of the public.  International Psychogeriatric Association 2016, San Francisco.
 
Newton L, Dickinson C, Robinson L. Assessing dementia risk in general practice: a qualitative study of the attitudes and views of patients and the public.  Clinical Commissioning Group 2016.
 
Robinson L. Care commissioning for end of life care and dementia: how evidence based is current practice.  Society for Academic Primary Care, 6-8 July 2016, Dublin Castle, Dublin.
 
Posters
 
Newton L, Dickinson C, Robinson L.  Royal College General Practitioners Conference 2016 (Harrogate).   “Assessing dementia risk in general practice: a qualitative study of the attitudes and views of members of the public”.
 
Newton L, Dickinson C, Rait G, Wilcock J, Lytras M, Walters K, Robinson J, Qureshi N, Louise Robinson – Assessing dementia risk in general practice: a qualitative study of the attitudes and views of members of the public.  School for Primary Care Research NIHR Ten Year Anniversary, 22nd November 2016, Wellcome Trust, London.
 
Robinson J, Newton L, Robinson L, Dickinson C – Exploring the knowledge and attitudes of medical students towards early dementia diagnosis and prevention in general practice in the UK.  School for Primary Care Research NIHR Ten Year Anniversary, 22nd November 2016, Wellcome Trust, London.
 
Newton L, Dickinson C, Robinson L. Assessing dementia risk in general practice: a qualitative study of the attitudes and views of members of the public.  Royal College General Practitioners Conference 2016, Harrogate.
 
Newtow L, Dickinson C, Rait G, Wilcock J, Lytras M, Walters K, Robinson J, Qureshi N, Robinson L.  Assessing dementia risk in general practice: a qualitative study of the attitudes and views of members of the public.  School for Primary Care Research NIHR Ten Year Anniversary, 22 November 2016, Wellcome Trust, London.
 
Robinson J, Newton L, Robinson L, Dickinson C.  Exploring the knowledge and attitudes of medical students towards early dementia diagnosis and prevention in general practice in the UK. School for Primary Care Research NIHR Ten Year Anniversary, 22 November 2016, Wellcome Trust, London.