Alzheimer?s disease and related dementias (ADRD) among U.S. Latinos are projected to increase over nine-fold from 379,000 in 2012 to 3.5 million by 2060. Latinos represent 18% of the U.S. population and about 40% of the population of California. Latinos lag behind Whites and African-Americans in education and healthcare insurance, and have cardiovascular, metabolic, and other disease burdens that exceed those of Whites; however, Latino life-expectancy at birth surpasses that of Whites by over 3-years giving them greater exposure to age-related risk of ADRD. Because of these factors, and cultural differences in reporting behavioral, cognitive, and functional deficits, state-of-the-art clinical, neuropsychological, and neurological procedures used to diagnose AD, that were largely developed and validated in relatively homogeneous, well- educated, White, English-speaking populations, may not work effectively with monolingual Spanish-speaking or Spanish-English bilingual older Latinos. Thus, there is a need for AD-related research in older Latinos to overcome barriers to effective screening, assessment, diagnosis and treatment of early and preclinical disease. There is also a need to better understand factors that impede or facilitate participation of elderly Latinos (particularly Mexican-Americans) in AD-related research, including awareness of AD and its clinical features, level of concern about the consequences of AD and burden of care, and willingness to participate in research including procedures such as sampling of biomarkers, genetics, and autopsy. To address these needs, the overall aims of the Latino Core are to: 1) conduct a linguistically- and culturally-appropriate memory screening and evaluation program in predominantly Latino areas in San Diego to develop and maintain a registry of well-characterized older Latino individuals who are interested in research and have agreed to be contacted about on-going AD-related research studies; 2) conduct developmental research to refine and evaluate linguistically- and culturally-appropriate clinical and cognitive assessment procedures to accurately identify MCI and the transition to AD dementia in older Latinos; 3) conduct developmental research to determine degree of knowledge and attitudes towards AD, brain health, and participation in all aspects of AD research in older Latinos; and 4) serve as a conduit between the activities of the ADRC and a large-scale epidemiology project on cognitive changes in older Latinos known as the Study of Latinos-Investigation of Neurocognitive Aging (SOL-INCA) and other new national and state-wide Latino research initiatives. This will allow participants identified with possible Mild Cognitive Impairment or ADRD to receive more extensive clinical and neuropsychological characterization and to participate in AD-related research projects, including clinical trials. Thus, the Latino Core will ensure that the ADRC is well positioned to study ADRD in this significant yet underserved population, filling critical gaps in scientific knowledge essential for reducing the disparities related to ADRD diagnosis, treatment and care facing Latinos in our San Diego community and beyond.
