Aim: To understand how COVID-19 has affected the quality of life, wellbeing, and care of people diagnosed with dementia and their family carers?

The COVID-19 nested study will used a mixed methods design within phase 2 of the wider TFD study. Quantitative measures of Quality of Life, Social functioning and illness severity before, during and after the social restrictions arising from the pandemic will be assessed. Additionally, qualitative interviews will be used to understand the experience in more depth, as well as factors which have specifically influenced QoL.

Design: This study will use a mixed methods approach; quantitatively measuring QoL, before, during and after the COVID 19 isolation period, and qualitatively, through semi structured in-depth qualitative telephone interviews to explore the impact in more detail.

Participants: Existing family carer participants (n=350) in the BSMS Time for Dementia (TfD) study will be invited to participate in this COVID 19 sub-study. TfD is a longitudinal undergraduate dementia education programme with a linked study running across Kent, Sussex and Surrey which directly involves people with dementia and their family carers. All of the potential participants have pre-COVID 19 QOL data that can be used as a baseline comparator.

Measures: DEMQOL-Proxy (Smith et al., 2007)

The Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR; Morris, 1993)

SF-DEM: Social Functioning in Dementia scale, (SF-DEM; Sommerlad et al, 2015)

C-DEMQOL (Brown et al, 2018)

A document titled ‘The impact of the Covid 19 Pandemic on people with dementia and their carers (Findings from studies and key messages)’ was shared with commissioners in 2021.

For the document, please see the Publications & Other Outputs section below.