Research project

Listening to local communities to understand how to reduce inequities and barriers to risk reduction for better brain health.

Lead researchers:

Dr Kate Hough,

Professor Tracey Newman,

Dr Rosalind Willis
Status:

Not active

Project overview

Aims
• Develop our community links to include brain
health, hearing and dementia outreach.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of community engagement in:
1. raisingawareness,buildingknowledge,and informing behaviour change around brain health,
2. encouraging participation in research.

Objectives
• Engage with members of the community, in their
spaces, to understand their experiences/knowledge
of brain health.
• Raise awareness, in underserved communities, of
the links between brain health, hearing and dementia.
• Use qualitative and quantitative methods to measure changes in knowledge and behaviour e.g., accessing health services related to brain health; effective use of hearing aids; seeking hearing or memory assessments.
• Measure the change in participation of people from underserved communities in research.

Funding from Alzheimer's Research UK Pump Priming Grant June 2023

Staff

Lead researchers

Dr Kate Hough

Research Fellow in Neuroimmunology

Research interests

Hearing loss
Cochlear implants
Macrophages

Connect with Kate

Email: K.L.Hough@soton.ac.uk

Professor Tracey Newman

Professor

Research interests

The demographic of populations worldwide is changing. People are living longer but with more years with affected by disability in the last two decades of life. The societal and economic consequences of this change are not being well managed. There is a lag in the development of health interventions and a need for rapid learning for future health and infrastructure planning. Typically, people in poorer economic situations are disproportionately affected by disability in later life.
Hearing loss and dementia: I lead multidisciplinary research focussed on hearing loss, the use of cochlear implants to restore hearing in otherwise deaf people and the interaction between hearing loss and dementia.
My focus is understanding cellular mechanisms in these conditions and also how the learning and methodologies used to investigate this can be applied across discipline boundaries. I am driving the implementation of data science methodologies for improved management of people who hear with cochlear implants and for the identification of early indicators of cognitive decline. I am championing the engagement of patients in research and as ambassadors to increase awareness of healthcare interventions amongst hard to reach and marginalised communities.

Connect with Tracey

Email: T.A.Newman@soton.ac.uk