Feasibility of an Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Intervention in the Latino Community

The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility of a 45-minute, culturally tailored presentation on Alzheimer's disease for professionals serving the Latino community and Latinos served by community organizations. Five lunch-and-learn events (“Smart Aging” presented in English to professionals and “Envejecimineto Digno” presented in Spanish to served Latinos) were conducted with a total of 40 professionals and 37 served Latinos. Researchers increased the pool of participants by scheduling sessions to match specific days that the presentation site (a Latino community organization) provided holiday giveaway gifts. Through pre- and post-surveys, the researchers found that the intervention increased participants’ short-term Alzheimer’s knowledge and was perceived as interesting and useful.

However, almost half the served Latinos perceived the presentation as difficult despite its cultural adapation. The researchers noted that qualitative research is needed to further adapt the level of difficulty of the presentation for Latinos with low levels of education. They suggested that future studies could investigate whether Alzheimer’s knowledge gained among served Latinos (which reached similar levels as professionals after the presentation) can be maintained over time and whether this intervention can increase recruitment rates for Alzheimer’s-related studies.

Perales J, Moore WT, Fernandez C, et al. Feasibility of an Alzheimer's disease knowledge intervention in the Latino community. Ethnicity & Health 2018;18:1-12.