The Contribution of Physical Activity to Social Connectivity and Wellbeing in Older Adults Living with Dementia

The research will focus on how Dementia Friendly Communities (DFCs) promote engagement with physical activities.

England is one of the first countries to encourage the creation of Dementia Friendly Communities (DFCs) as part of national policy. DFCs support local communities to engage with people affected by dementia.The DEMCON study, a national evaluation of DFCs, found that some but not all DFCs offered physical activities for people living with dementia. However, providers and users of physical activity were not included in the sample.

The current project will advance the findings of the DEMCOM study. We will survey up to 50 DFCs across England. The survey will consider the opportunities and challenges of physical activity provision for people living with dementia. We will use three DFCs for our case studies, focussing on Stevenage, Sheffield and Watford. These have been chosen because they each have different experiences of promoting physical activity.

We will engage with focus groups and conduct individual interviews to gain insights into the running of physical activity programmes in DFCs. This research will involve key staff, such as the providers and leaders of physical activity We will interview people living with dementia, and their family supporters or carers to gain an understanding of their experience of participating in physical activities.

One of our key objectives is to provide a resource that can be used by people living with dementia and their carers to find dementia friendly physical activities offered in their local area. We will also produce guidelines about how to make physical activity programmes accessible for people living with dementia. This includes people from different cultural groups and at different stages of their dementia journey. Finally, we will write a report about the benefits of physical activity for people living with dementia. We will consider the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the provision and accessibility of physical activity for people living with dementia.