The proposed research aims to create empirical evidence regarding the impact of befriending services on health and loneliness, assisting ALONE in developing and refining their mission statement. The research question is: “Do befriending services improve health (measured as health-related quality of life and cognitive function), and do they mitigate the impact of loneliness on health?” A secondary aim is to identify, using exploratory methods, potential mechanisms through which befriending impacts health.
Research
DRNI Members Research is a list of ongoing and completed research carried out by DRNI members.
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Aim(s):
(i) To characterise patterns of hearing problems and of hearing aid use in NICOLA and to compare these patterns in a qualitative fashion with those found in TILDA.
(ii) To evaluate the cross-sectional relationship between hearing problems and cognitive functioning, using regression modelling.
(iii) To evaluate loneliness, social isolation, and social engagement as moderators of the putative relationship between hearing problems and cognitive functioning, using a structural equation modelling approach.
Project Aim(s): To determine the effect(s) of CSF from Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients on cerebroids cultured healthy human iPSCs and to identify the mediator(s) of AD-CSF-mediated pathology.
To develop accessible best practice guidelines for post-diagnostic dementia supports for people with an intellectual disability in Ireland. The project aims to:
(1) examine the current landscape of post-diagnostic care at a national level;
(2) consider barriers to access;
(3) incorporate existing best practices; and
(4) give due consideration of the experiences and recommendations of people with an intellectual disability living with dementia and of their families/carers.
The successful treatment of memory impairments and neurodegenerative disorders critically depends on our understanding of the storage and recollection of memory episodes. Specifically, an understanding of the interaction between amnesic and neurodegenerative syndromes would aid the development of effective treatments. One of the key questions in neuroscience is: how do brain networks encode experience-dependent memory? Answering this question will give us a universal tool to treat multiple brain disorders.
Project Aim(s): The objective is the assessment of the impact of alterations of white matter tract integrity on effective connectivity in the neural network underpinning working memory. Using brain imaging data it will examine the associations between brain structure and function in young and older healthy participants and how normal ageing alters the relationship between structure and function.
Increased knowledge about the pre-clinical and early clinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) will be key in developing preventative strategies for the disease as well as development of therapeutic treatment strategies. In addition, this approach will contribute to the development of biomarkers for the early diagnosis of AD.
No new Alzheimer's drug treatment had be licensed for 20 years until 2021, when the first Alzheimer's disease-modifying therapy (DMT) was licensed in the USA, giving hope of slowing/reversing the disease. Several new DMTs are expected. Unfortunately, offering DMTs in Ireland requires significant changes in Memory Clinic set-up, due to high drug costs and need for careful monitoring. Moreover, DMTs only work in people in early Alzheimer's, which is often unrecognized in Ireland.
Project Aim(s):
The project has various complementary aims: (a) research on normal ageing and Alzheimer's disease using MRI-based methods, (b) develop training programmes in neuroimaging in dementia, (c) develop greater understanding of the use of neuroimaging by clinicians for diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, (d) technology transfer between centres.
Project Aim(s): To test a software engine designed to optimize medication in multimorbid older patients aimed at preventing unplanned hospitral readmissions.