Title: Black Male Dementia Caregiver Burden: stress-related cognitive dysfunction, and physiological and psychosocial measures. PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Robert W. Turner II is an Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, at The George Washington University, and holds a visiting fellow appointment in the Center on Health and Society at Duke University. He has training in medical sociology, ethnographic methods, and health disparities research. His previous and current work has exposed him to theoretical perspectives and empirical approaches pertinent to health disparity and aging research among men. In August, 2017, he received a five-year Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (1K01AG054762-01A1) from the National Institute on Aging for training and support that address gaps in his knowledge of biobehavioral factors underlying Alzheimer?s Disease and related dementias (ADRD) related to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and accelerated cognitive aging. In collaboration with his mentoring team (Drs. Tim Strauman, Keith Whitfield, and Toni Antonucci) he has developed a comprehensive training and research plan that will both fill in these knowledge gaps and prepare him for an independent research career. The overarching goal of his K01 is to gain expertise on the interrelationships between multiple measures of psychosocial and neurocognitive factors associated with AD dementia related to accelerated cognitive aging, and serve as bridge for him to establish an independent investigator career in conducting biobehavioral health disparities research in adult male populations. The objective of this administrative supplement is to extend his program of research by evaluating the effect of dementia caregiving stress on cognitive function in adults. While interest in this issue has increased in recent years, sparse literature exists on adult black males as primary caregivers of a person with dementia, a growing subpopulation particularly vulnerable to various forms of stress. Knowledge about the cognitive health of adult black make primary caregivers will allow for the healthcare system to better support this group that will be paramount in caring for a growing number of older individuals with dementia.
An emerging area of public health concern for policy makers, caregivers and families, and health service workers, is the growing number of older adults with Alzheimer?s Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD). The number of Black Americans with ADRD who will require some type of care is projected to triple in the upcoming decade. The goal of this project is to expand the current paradigms for assessing caregiver burden by exploring whether the stress of being the primary caregiver of a person with dementia (PWD) produces cognitive dysfunction in adult and older adult Black American men.
| Turner, Robert W; Lucas, Jeffery W; Margolis, Lewis H et al. (2017) A preliminary study of youth sport concussions: Parents' health literacy and knowledge of return-to-play protocol criteria. Brain Inj 31:1124-1130 |
