Misconceptions and knowledge gaps contribute significantly to Alzheimer's disease-related health disparities in Native populations. Several teams at Washington State University (WSU) are addressing those disparities through education, outreach, and research.
Partnerships for Native Health—a unit under WSU's Initiative for Research and Education to Advance Community Health (IREACH)—works with tribes, tribal organizations, and community-based programs to increase awareness of Alzheimer's disease and its impact on patients and families.
"In Native communities, many people don't understand what Alzheimer's is," says Dedra Buchwald, MD, Director of IREACH and founding director of Partnerships for Native Health. "So, we disseminate culturally appropriate materials with the message that the disease is not a normal part of aging."
Ultimately, being able to prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease among American Indian and Alaska Native people will require national data regarding the disease's basic patterns in Native populations. To that end, Partnerships for Native Health is working with Native elders to explore cultural values that might prevent or promote their participation in Alzheimer's disease-related research.
Building on 20 years of community-based research with American Indian and Alaska Native people, Buchwald and colleagues are currently studying vascular brain disease, Alzheimer's disease, and cognitive impairment. The elders enrolled in the study live in mostly rural areas and are spread across three states and many tribes.
Recently, WSU also collaborated with the University of Colorado Denver and Stanford University to establish the Native Alzheimer's Disease-Related Resource Center in Minority Aging. Funded by a $2.8-million grant from the National Institute on Aging, the Center offers financial support and mentoring to scientists, especially those of Native heritage, who are interested in conducting research on Alzheimer's disease in Native populations.
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