Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg

Heading off Alzheimer's

Statewide campaign promotes awareness of dreaded disease

In a report in the May Archives of Neurology, researchers concluded that Latinos in the United States develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease at a younger age than non-Latinos. Also, the Alzheimer’s association says the number of Hispanics with Alzheimer’s is expected to increase by the year 2050. This has sparked a statewide effort to bring awareness of Alzheimer’s disease among Latinos. For more information on Latinos with Alzheimer’s, call the Positron Emission Topography or “PET” research center at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center at (602) 239-2083.

JOSÉ CÁRDENAS: With us to talk more about Alzheimer’s disease and a federally funded study for Hispanics is Dr. Eric Reiman, director of the Alzheimer’s disease research program at the Banner Good Samaritan Hospital. Also here to talk more about the Latino outreach effort is Dr. Alfred Kaszniak, director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s disease consortium education core. He is also the head of the psychology department at the University of Arizona. Dr. Reiman, what are we talking about in terms of Arizona?

 DR. REIMAN: It’s a terrible problem not just a problem for the affected person and their family members but a growing financial problem for our communities. We believe there are about 80,000 affected individuals in Arizona. We believe numbers are going to increase over the next 40 to 50 years by a factor of four and by a factor of six in our Latino populations. In the United States, those numbers will add up to a cost of more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars per year. We have an urgent need to find a way not just to stop the progression but to prevent the onset of the disorder.

JOSÉ CÁRDENAS: I understand Arizona is a leader in this area, not simply because we have a significant elderly population but also we have a unique combination of resources.

DR. REIMAN: We have remarkable scientific and organizational resources. What we have been able to do with our Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease consortium, with support from the state and the federal government, is bring researchers from different institutions together to address problems in a more fundamental way.

JOSÉ CÁRDENAS: We heard a lot about some differences for Latinos, earlier onset and apparently a significant increase by 2050. What’s going on there? What are we talking about?

DR. KASZNIAK: First of all, part of the increase is the increase of Latino individuals in the United States. That accounts for a part of that projection. A second aspect is, with an earlier age of onset, given the fact that the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease doubles about every five years, that results in greater numbers of Latinos developing the illness.

JOSÉ CÁRDENAS: As I understand it, we have two major efforts underway. Dr. Kaszniak, can you talk about the study that you’re involved in?

DR. REIMAN: In partnership with our collaborators at the Mayo Clinic, at Banner, we have been using brain-imaging techniques to detect and track the brain changes that may be associated with risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease many decades before the onset of memory and thinking problems. We are developing a way to test future prevention therapies without having to wait many years to determine whether and when people develop memory and thinking problems. We would like to do now, having detected those changes, almost five decades before the onset of memory and thinking problems, is to see if we can find the same changes in carriers of the susceptibility gene before they have any memory, thinking problems at all.

Right now we’re enrolling members of the Latino community between 47 and 68 years of age. If they are eligible, we would like to provide a battery of memory and thinking tests and follow individuals and perhaps brain imaging studies. As part of our larger effort, there are other studies those individuals might be interested in participating in, as well.

JOSÉ CÁRDENAS: Dr. Kaszniak, the outreach effort to Latinos, is that impacted by cultural differences?

DR. KASZNIAK: Absolutely. In any effort to reach out to communities that had been underserved and underrepresented in research, I think the first thing one has to do is consider why that is. Why is it that individuals have not been enrolled in studies previously? I think a part of the answer is there has not been sufficient cultural sensitivities, about what matters to them and what concerns do they have in coming to the sorts of places where research is conducted.

JOSÉ CÁRDENAS: Can you give me an example of what you have encountered in that area?

DR. KASZNIAK: For one example with Latino individuals in this region, family is a very, very important factor. Very often the individual afflicted by the illness or at risk is not the only person that one needs to consult with, it’s really the entire family that makes the decision about whether someone is going to get involved in something like research or come even to the attention of a professional for diagnosis.

JOSÉ CÁRDENAS: I know have you some Spanish language materials. In what other ways are you reaching out to the Latino community?

DR. KASZNIAK: We have been organizing particular education efforts to better train physicians to be more culturally sensitive and be more aware of some of the risk factors so they can better serve Latino individuals. We have been doing a variety of educational efforts at professional meetings aimed toward the same kinds of goals and organizing a number of community educational events.

JOSÉ CÁRDENAS: This may be a sign of my own onset of Alzheimer’s. Did you say how young it is that Latinos are contracting Alzheimer’s as compared to the population at large?

DR. KASZNIAK: The average age of onset, and as I said it increases with age, but overall the average age of onset is in the middle 70s. For Latino individuals, it is in the middle to earlier 60s.

JOSÉ CÁRDENAS: When are we going to see results for the studies?

DR. REIMAN: It’s my hope that we might be able to find a way to prevent the disorder within the next decade, but we need to be able to identify and address some of the challenges along the way.

Cárdenas interviews are a regular monthly feature in Latino Perspectives. Horizonte airs Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. on Channel 8, KAET. For a full transcript of this interview, visit azpbs.org/horizonte.