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DEM-SAFE

About the DEM-SAFE Project

It is predicted numbers of people living with dementia from minority ethnic communities will increase to 50,000 by 2026 and 172,000 by 2051. This is a predicted sevenfold increase compared to the twofold increase in the white British population. Vascular dementia is more common among minority ethnic communities in the UK, affecting 22% compared to 15% of white British people living with dementia. This is due to the higher prevalence of risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Addressing these through lifestyle changes would reduce the risk of dementia by 14%.

The Dem-SAFE (Social engagement, Awareness and education, Fitness and physical health, Eating a healthy diet) project aims to build research and expertise in developing culturally sensitive public health interventions to reduce dementia risk in South Asian and African Caribbean communities.   

Aims and objectives

  1. To understand the perceived risk factors associated with dementia in minority ethnic communities.
  2. To understand the attitudes and motivators for lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of dementia amongst minority ethnic communities.
  3. How effective are dementia risk reduction/brain health awareness campaigns?
  4. What might a lifestyle intervention for dementia risk reduction for south Asian and African Caribbean communities look like?

Plan of work

The Dem-SAFE project aims to focus on two work packages: prevention and living well with dementia. Work package one aims to recruit younger South Asian and African Caribbean adults without dementia to co-design a public health intervention to raise awareness of dementia risk factors. Work package two aims to recruit older adults and carers living with dementia to co design interventions to enable South Asian and African Caribbean families to live well with dementia through lifestyle changes.

PPI

Experts by experience are vital to this project. We aim to conduct workshops with the public, carers, and people living with dementia to identify which risk factor(s) to focus on and to design a potential intervention/education resource.

 

Funding

This project is funded by a NIHR 3 schools grant and ARC funding.