Dementia friendly community outreach improves research participation and dementia resource utilization among African Americans

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundAfrican Americans are at greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD‐related dementia (ADRD). They are also less likely to access dementia resources or participate in dementia research. The National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) calls for special attention to dementia‐related health disparities in high risk groups. Identifying effective tools to improve rates of dementia resource utilization and research participation by African Americans is essential to achieving dementia health equity.MethodTwo neighborhoods of Jacksonville, FL, defined by zip codes, were the focus of this study. Both zip codes have a large population of African American residents per 2010 US Census, and a history of hosting outreach activities by our Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC). In one neighborhood, we modified the NAPA Dementia Friendly (DF) America toolkit to serve as a model of outreach. The second neighborhood served as a control (CON), in which we maintained our traditional outreach model of community‐based lectures. Primary outcome measures were: (1) enrollment in ADRC center‐related studies and (2) phone call volumes from individuals seeking dementia resource information. The outcomes in the DF and CON neighborhoods were compared via Fisher’s exact test to those in other zip codes in Jacksonville (OT).ResultIn the 18 months following implementation of the DF intervention, 54 African Americans enrolled in ADRC‐related research (19 DF, 3 CON, 32 OT), compared to 21 during the 18 months prior (2 DF, 0 CON, and 19 OT). The increase in DF residents enrolling in research following the intervention was statistically significant (p =0 .02) relative to OT residents. The increase observed in the CON residents was not statistically significant (p=1.0) compared to OT residents. Call volumes from African Americans increased from 13 prior to program implementation (all from OT) to 62 calls after implementation (22 DF, 1 CON, 39 OT). The increase among DF residents seeking information following the intervention was statistically significant (p =0.008) whereas the increase was not significant in the CON residents (p=0.54).ConclusionResults suggest that the NAPA DFA can be leveraged to improve dementia resource utilization and research participation among community‐dwelling African Americans.