Research on the causes, course, and detection of cognitive impairment in ethnic minorities has begun to bear fruit, particularly over the last ten years. However, in the United States, studies of cognition in African American and Hispanic elderly have far outpaced those in Asian Americans, the largest minority group in the Pacific Northwest, and rates of participation of minorities in mainstream research on dementia continue to be relatively low. The University of Washington ADRC Satellite seeks to identify and enroll older Asian Americans in a NACC-compliant registry for research, emphasizing early stage cognitive decline, encouraging participation in ongoing research projects, and, in keeping with the Center's strong focus on genetic factors in dementia, identifying and locating familial cases for studies of genetic differences. We have the unique opportunity to resume studies of nearly 2000 older Japanese Americans enrolled in the NIA-funded Kame project over 10 years ago. The first 18 months of the proposed project will be dedicated to developing essential infrastructure for these aims, convening a new Community Advisory Board, creating a computerized family history database from raw research records, and identifying subjects who may be appropriate for dementia-related studies. We will emphasize (1) US-born Japanese with a positive family history of dementia, especially those with 'loaded'families;(2) Individuals with and without dementia who are willing to be contacted as potential subjects in research on cognitive impairment;and (3) Individuals who had begun to show early signs of cognitive decline from normal during their last Kame assessment. During the remainder of the funding period, up to 200 Japanese American subjects will be individually re-evaluated using both the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument, for continuity with earlier Kame data and Satellite projects, and the NACC Uniform Data Set.
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