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Dr Laura Hughes

Research Fellow
E: L.Hughes3@bsms.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1273 872691
Location: Trafford Centre for Medical Research, Room 211, BSMS, University of Sussex, BN1 9RY

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

Biography

Laura is a research fellow at the Centre for Dementia Studies. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology in 2013 at Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, followed by an MSc in research methodology at the University of Strathclyde in 2014. She has a PhD from Brighton and Sussex Medical School which explored the implementation of routine quality of life measurement in care homes. Laura continues working on this area of research whilst collaborating on a variety of other dementia and older adult related research. Laura worked in the social care sector for over eight years and has extensive research and occupational experience working with people living in care homes, their families, and care home staff.

Research

Laura's research interests are in dementia and older adult social care. Her work focusses on quality of life in older adult care homes and how we can implement routine measurement of quality of life to improve outcomes for residents and staff in the care sector. She developed a quality of life measure that can be completed by care staff without the need for externally trained professionals, providing care homes with an independent means of understanding resident quality of life. She has an interest in working closely and collaboratively with care home staff during research to enhance pragmatic use of research findings. More broadly Laura is interested in many aspects of older adult health and social care such as care staff experiences of caring and public attitudes toward dementia and dementia care.

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

Teaching

Laura is deputy module lead for module 202: Neuroscience and Behaviour. She also runs student selected components in module 103: Heart, Lungs and Blood and module 104: Nutrition, Metabolism and Excretion. Laura is also an academic tutor, she has supervised independent research projects, and supervises students from MSc Primary Care and Public Health, and MSc Dementia Studies.

Selected Publications

Hoben M, Chamberlain SA, O'Rourke HM, et alPsychometric properties and use of the DEMQOL suite of instruments in research: a systematic review protocolBMJ

Farina, N, Hughes, L J, Jones, E, Parveen, S, Griffiths, A W, Galvin, K and Banerjee, S (2020) Evaluation of a dementia awareness programme in UK schools: a qualitative study. Public Health, 185. pp. 348-355. ISSN 0033-3506

Parveen, Sahdia, Farina, Nicolas, Shafiq, Saba, Hughes, Laura J and Griffiths, Alys W (2018) What do adolescents perceive to be key features of an effective dementia education and awareness initiative? Dementia. ISSN 1471-3012

Farina, Nicolas, Hughes, Laura J, Griffiths, Alys W and Parveen, Sahdia (2019) Adolescents’ experiences and perceptions of dementia. Aging and Mental Health. ISSN 1360-7863

Farina, Nicolas, Hughes, Laura J, Jones, Ellen, Parveen, Sahdia, Griffiths, Alys W, Galvin, Kathleen and Banerjee, Sube (2020) The effect of a dementia awareness class on changing dementia attitudes in adolescents. BMC Geriatrics, 20. a188 1-9. ISSN 1471-2318

Farina, Nicolas, Williams, Alice, Clarke, Kirsty, Hughes, Laura J, Thomas, Serena, Lowry, Ruth G and Banerjee, Sube (2020) Barriers, motivators and facilitators of physical activity in people with dementia and their family carers in England: dyadic interviews. Aging and Mental Health. pp. 1-11. ISSN 1360-7863

Farina, Nicolas, Griffiths, Alys W, Hughes, Laura J and Parveen, Sahdia (2020) Measuring adolescent attitudes towards dementia: the revalidation and refinement of the A-ADS. Journal of Health Psychology. ISSN 1359-1053

Hughes, Laura J, Farina, Nicolas, Page, Thomas E, Tabet, Naji and Banerjee, Sube (2019) Adaptation of the DEMQOL-Proxy for routine use in care homes: a cross sectional study of the reliability and validity of DEMQOL-CH. BMJ Open, 9 (8). e028045. ISSN 2044-6055

Hughes, Laura, Betka, Sophie and Longarzo, Mariachiara (2019) Validation of an electronic version of the Self‐Awareness Questionnaire in English and Italian healthy samples. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 28 (1). e1758 1-8. ISSN 1049-8931

Hughes, Laura J, Farina, Nicolas, Page, Thomas E, Tabet, Naji and Banerjee, Sube (2019) Psychometric properties and feasibility of use of dementia specific quality of life instruments for use in care settings: a systematic review. International Psychogeriatrics. pp. 1-15. ISSN 1041-6102, 1741-203X

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