BrainWorks: A Comparative Effectiveness Trial to Examine Alzheimer's Disease Education for Community-Dwelling African Americans

To test an intervention for increasing Alzheimer’s disease literacy — defined as knowledge about the disease and understanding of its causes, consequences, symptoms, and treatment — among African Americans, the researchers enrolled 193 African American community-dwelling adults to participate in a study using culturally tailored education and messaging. The study began with all participants attending a “talk show” in an African American community setting that delivered information about Alzheimer’s disease. The next phase included a series of daily text messages for a month. Findings show that participants who received the culturally tailored text messages about Alzheimer’s disease had higher increases in Alzheimer’s disease literacy levels compared to those who received general text messages.

Lincoln KD, et al. BrainWorks: A comparative effectiveness trial to examine Alzheimer's disease education for community-dwelling African Americans. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2019;27(1):53-61. doi: 10.1016/j.jagp.2018.09.010.