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This has included a range of epidemiological studies using large datasets, for example routinely collected primary healthcare data for The Health Improvement Network (THIN) and data from community-dwellers participating in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), and qualitative work to understand how risk prediction tools can be used in primary care practice:
- Modifiable Risk Factors for Frailty
- Sensory impairments and risk of frailty and cognitive impairment
- Epidemiology of frailty in low and middle-income countries
- Development and validation of the Dementia Risk Score
Risk assessment and timely diagnosis of dementia in primary care: a qualitative exploration.
- Pre-diagnostic presentations of Parkinson's Disease
- Use & Safety of medications with blood pressure lowering effects in older people
Principle Investigator: Cini Bhanu (PhD project)
Start date: 01 Sept 2019
Finish date: August 2022
Main aim or mission of the project:
To characterise use and cumulative risk associated with medications with blood pressure lowering effects (and their combinations) in older people, including postural hypotension and falls using a large UK primary care database The Health Improvement Network (THIN) and the Delirium and Population Health Informatics Cohort (DELPHIC)
Background:
Polypharmacy is rising: 44–57% of older adults are on ≥5 drugs and approximately 10% on ≥10 drugs. More than 50 commonly prescribed drugs cite “hypotension” as an adverse effect. These medications have the potential to cause postural hypotension; affecting 20-65% of older people and an independent cause of falls.
Study Methods:
Systematic review, cohort study using The Health Improvement Network (THIN) including >900,000 older people [24] and the Delirium and Population Health Informatics Cohort (DELPHIC).
Project co-applicants and collaborators: Primary Supervisor – Professor Kate Walters, Secondary Supervisor – Professor Irene Petersen
Advisory Panel: Dr Daniel Davis (MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL), Dr Mine Orlu (UCL School of Pharmacy), Professor Richard McManus (University of Oxford)
Funded by:
Dunhill Medical Trust
Contact details: c.bhanu@ucl.ac.uk