Published 16 February 2018

This spotlight report highlights the positive difference medical research charities are making for dementia patients across the UK.

38% of people in the UK have a family member or close friend living with dementia.

The report sets out how member charities are working in this area, and provides examples of the life-changing research they continue to support.

Data sources:

Stats are from Alzheimer’s Research UK Dementia Statistics Hub.

  1. 850,000: Prince, M et al (2014) Dementia UK: Update Second Edition report produced by King’s College London and the London School of Economics for the Alzheimer’s Society
  2. 38%: YouGov polling for Alzheimer’s Research UK 2nd – 5th May 2012 and ONS population statistics
  3. 92%: Source: Browne J et al Association of comorbidity and health service usage among patients with dementia in the UK; a population-based study (2017)
  4. £26bn: Lewis et al (2014). Trajectory of Dementia in the UK – Making a Difference, report produced the Office of Health Economics for Alzheimer’s Research UK

How are medical research charities working in this area?

  1. 22 charities, £113m: AMRC research portfolio database, active grants in 2015 and 2016 funded by dementia-focused charities or containing dementia-related keywords in the award title or abstract.
  2. 13,800 people: Clinical trials funded by AMRC member charities and managed by the Dementias and Neurodegeneration specialty (April 2016 - March 2017). Data extracted on 5 Feb 2018 from NIHR CRN: Open Data Platform (ODP).
  3. People vector created by Muammark - Freepik.com, https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/people
  4. Map: apportioned value of awards from subset described above (1). 4% were unknown.
  5. Further investment: Data from AMRC members using the Researchfish system to capture research impact, linked to award subset described above (1). “Other” category includes academic/university, global, hospitals, learned society, and multiple sources, excluding European funders.

To learn more about the projects and partnerships featured in this report, follow these links:

  1. Investing in dementia care
  2. Accelerating drug discovery
  3. Diagnosing dementia earlier
  4. Exploring genetics
  5. Dementia consortium
  6. UK Dementia Research Institute
  7. Join Dementia Research
  8. Brains for Dementia Research
  9. Vascular dementia research programme