We used passive home monitoring of activity to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients living with dementia (PLwD). In total, almost 7 million unique observations across almost 500 days were collected, providing a unique opportunity to study the effects of unique public health measures in this vulnerable population. Activity levels within the home increased across households early in the course of the pandemic. This change followed the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaration of a coronavirus outbreak but preceded the UK lockdown imposed by the UK government12, which suggests that people affected by dementia proactively changed their behaviour prior to public health restrictions imposed by the government.
Once imposed, UK lockdown restrictions limited movements outside the home, particularly in the first lockdown period (P3). We were able to directly study the…
