Behavioural and Psychological Effects of Dementia on People Living with the Condition

BSc Health and Social Care
Assessing the behavioural and psychological effect of dementia on
people living with the condition in London
A Research Project

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................1
1.0 Introduction to the chapter.....................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the study........................................................................................................3
1.2 Aim and objectives of the study............................................................................................6
1. Specific Objectives are to:.......................................................................................................6
1.4 Rationale for the study...........................................................................................................6
1.5 Significance of the study.......................................................................................................6
1.6 Summary of the chapter.........................................................................................................7
CHAPTER TWO - LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................8
2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................8
2.2 Overview................................................................................................................................8
2.3 Causes of Dementia.............................................................................................................11
2.4 Impact of Dementia on People Living with the Disease.....................................................12
2.5 Misconceptions....................................................................................................................13
2.6 Coping Strategies.................................................................................................................13
2.6.1 Helping Someone with Dementia; Caregiver Support.....................................................14
2.7 Gap in literature...................................................................................................................14
2.8 Theoretical review...............................................................................................................15
2.9 Summary of the chapter.......................................................................................................15
CHAPTER THREE - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...............................................................16
3.0 Introduction to the chapter...................................................................................................16
3.1 Research Philosophy............................................................................................................16
3.2 Data Collection....................................................................................................................16
3.3 Data Source..........................................................................................................................17
3.4 Search Terms.......................................................................................................................17
3.5 Inclusion and exclusion criteria...........................................................................................17
3.6 Data Analysis.......................................................................................................................18
3.7 Data Summary of journal articles........................................................................................18
3.8 Research ethics....................................................................................................................22

3.9 Limitation of the study.........................................................................................................22
3.10 Summary of the research...................................................................................................22
CHAPTER 4 - RESULTS OF THE STUDY................................................................................23
4.0 Introduction to the Chapter..................................................................................................23
4.1. Behavioral Effects of people living with dementia............................................................23
4.2 Psychological Effects of people living with dementia........................................................25
4.3 Emotional and social effect of dementia on living condition of individuals.......................27
CHAPTER FIVE - DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................29
5.0 Introduction to the chapter...................................................................................................29
5.1 Discussion of the findings...................................................................................................29
5.3 Recommendations for service provision, policy and further areas of research...................33
5.2 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................34
5.4 Summary of the chapter.......................................................................................................35
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................39
APPENDIX 1: Data Summary of journal articles.....................................................................39

ABSTRACT
Introduction: The study has been conducted to examine the behavioural and phycological
effects of dementia on the people living with the condition. The objectives of the study were to
assess the prevalence of dementia in the United Kingdom, to explore the behavioural effect of
dementia on people living with the condition, to identify the psychological impact of dementia
on people living with the condition and to examine make recommendations as to how caregivers
and the government of UK can help and support people with the condition.
Methodology: The thesis used theory of interpretative research which is related to the group of
epistemology philosophies alongside with a qualitative research approach. The study used only
secondary data collected from research papers, books, news articles and official statements
reports from journals such as the science direct, Google Scholar, SAGE Journals, Jstor and many
more. Also, data were collected from the official websites of the Government of UK, the NHS,
the Alzheimer’s disease Society and many more with search terms such as causes and effect of
dementia, theories of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, behavioural impacts of
dementia and many others. Being a qualitative research work, the thesis used content analysis to
analyze secondary data gathered.
Results: Firstly, the findings show that, about 50 million people have dementia worldwide, and
850,000 people have dementia in the UK. The findings also revealed that the behavioural effects
of dementia on people living with the condition included Agitation, Aggressive Behavior,
Disinhibition, Apathy, Sleep disorders, Anxiety, Aberrant motor behaviour, Irritability and
Euphoria. In addition to this, the findings recorded that, the psychological effects of dementia on
people living with the condition included Depression, Psychosis, Hallucinations, Delusion,
Delusional misidentification and Visual hallucinations. Finally, the findings show that the
government of UK has already put several measures and policies in place to support people
living with dementia and these include the National Dementia Strategy 2009, the 2012 Dementia
Challenge and the most recent one being the Challenge of Dementia 2020.
Conclusion and Recommendations: It was then recommended that; the government and the NHS
should organize training sessions for people involved in the care of dementia patients. Such
education can also be extended to families and love ones of people living with dementia. Also,
1

caregivers and health practitioners caring for people living with dementia should try to involve
people living with dementia in decisions about their care. Caregiver and medical practitioners should
encourage and enable people living with dementia share their views and opinions about their health
care. Also, the researcher recommended that the government of UK and the NHS should organize
awareness and sensitization programs to impact the knowledge of the risk factors and what can be
done by younger people to avoid developing dementia. Last but not least, the general public should
also be sensitized and educated in order not to engage in any form of stigmatization for people living
with dementia. The general public needs to be educated and oriented to be more supportive of people
living with dementia.
2

CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction to the chapter
Dementia is considered as worldwide health condition affection millions of people around the
globe. This health condition comes with both physical and phycological consequences which are
being studied in this research. This is the first chapter of the study which introduce the
background of the problem and the objectives of the study. This section of the chapter will
enlighten readers about the current trends and statistic of dementia cases worldwide and
specifically in the UK. The chapter also enlightensthe researcher on the need for a solution to the
research problem as well as an argument as to how this study is important.
1.1 Background of the study
Ageing, in most cases, is accompanied by the prevalence of so many diseases that rids them of
their independence. One such ailment is dementia syndrome. The Alzheimer’s disease
International (2017), has reported dementia to be a disease that is associated with a continuous
degeneration of brain functioning. It is associated with symptoms such as memory loss,
personality changes and impaired thinking pattern of the affected. Similarly, other sources have
defined it to be a group of thinking and social disorders that interferes with patient’s daily
functioning and activities. The NHS (201) has explained dementia as a syndrome that can be
linked to an ongoing decline in the brain functioning or a chronic mental disorder caused by
brain disease or an injury to the brain. Dementia is a degenerating neuron health condition which
leads to persistent and permanent deterioration in the cognitive, social and physical activities of
people living with the condition.
Dementia has become a global disease, as the number of people living with these health conditions
keeps increasing. Despite several researches by medical practitioners, there is no known cure for this
health condition. The World Health Organization (2019) stated that, although dementia mainly
affects older people, it is not to be considered as a normal part of ageing. The Alzheimer’s disease
International (2017) revealed a very disturbing statistics that show that a person is diagnosed of
dementia every three minutes in the world, contributing to a total of over 9.9 million dementia cases
a year. In 2015, dementia statistics by Alzheimer’s disease International (2017) estimated that about
46.8 people are living with the dementia-related disease worldwide. A recent statistic in 2019 by the
3

World Health Organization (2019) shows that over 50 million people are living with dementia
worldwide. To make matters worse, there are now 10 million new cases every year. This statistic
has been projected to get worse with a projection of 82 million cases in 2030 and 152 million
cases in 2050. (WHO, 2019). Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common form of dementia which
covers 60% to 70% of the total number of dementia cases worldwide.
Source: Prince, M et al. (2015).
The diagram above shows the projections made by Prince, M et al. (2015) in their World
Alzheimer’s Report 2015 from the year 2015 to 2060. The chart shows a continues increase in the
number of people living with dementia across the world. As stated earlier, the number of people
living with dementia worldwide is projected to exceed 150 million by the year 2050. In the chart, it
can be observed that Asia as a continent leads the current and the projected number of people living
with dementia worldwide. This was followed by America and Europe, respectively. Africa has the
least number of current and projected people living with dementia.
News from the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre of UK (2019) has it that the UK will report a
drastic increase in the number of dementia cases from about 885,000 people in 2019 to a
probable estimation of 1 million people in 2024 and another increase to 2 million in the year
4

2050. In the UK, dementia affects one out of 6 people who are over the age of 80 years and 1 out
of 14 people who are over the age of 65 years. Furthermore, the Care Policy and Evaluation
Centre of UK (2019) anticipated that due to the continuous rise in the rate at which the condition
was prevailing, the total cost of dementia treatment in the United Kingdom is most likely to
shoot up by 172%, which signifies an increase from £34.7 billion to £94.1 billion in 2040.
Currently, in the UK, the annual cost of dementia stands about £26
billion, making it £32,250 per individual every year (Alzheimer’s Society, 2017).
Source: Prince, Knapp, Guerchet, McCrone, Prina, Comas-Herrera & Rehill (2014).
The chart shows the projections of dementia from the year 2015 to 2050. The chart shows that,
by the year 2050, there will be an estimated number of over 2 million people living with
dementia in the UK. Of this estimated number, around 1.3 million of them will be females while
700,000 of them will be males (Prince et al., 2014).
Dementia has both physical and phycological effects on the people living with this health
condition. The complexity of this health condition has made it very difficult for catering to
people with dementia. The sad part of the whole issue is that dementia does not only negatively
affect the people living with the condition, but it also has negative effects on their families and
loves ones and even the soundness of the country’s economy. If care is not taken, the number of
resources needed to manage dementia cases in the UK will become unbearable to countries in the
region. Despite interventions to support people living with dementia in the region, countries are
still experiencing its negative impact as more and more cases are recorded each year. There is,
5