Brain Health Equity Research Collaborative

Project Summary Racial and ethnic disparities in neurologic disease mortality and outcomes contribute to thousands of avertible deaths per year. The burden of neurologic diseases disproportionately impacts Black and Hispanic communities; however, Black, and Hispanic patients are underrepresented in clinical trials for neurologic conditions. Community-engaged research holds promise for improving our understanding of factors contributing to neurologic disease disparities; however, most institutions lack structural elements needed for meaningful community engagement. The goal of this project is to build infrastructure for community-engaged research interventions for three neurologic conditions affecting brain health. We hypothesize that stroke, vascular cognitive impairment and dementia, and Parkinson’s disease share similar social and clinical characteristics that underly racial and ethnic disparities in their outcomes. We have developed a conceptual model with multiple testable hypotheses that can facilitate intervention development and increase our understanding of mechanisms contributing to neurologic disease disparities. Through the proposed Brain Health Equity Collaborative, we will build the structural capacity needed to design equitable community-engaged interventions. First, in collaboration with community-based organizations, we will establish community-level and patient-level oversight with a Brain Health Equity Oversight Committee and a Community Advisory Board. Next, we will used mixed methods research to identify multilevel barriers to research inclusion for Black and Hispanic patients with stroke, vascular cognitive impairment and dementia, and Parkinson’s disease. Lastly, we will design and pilot a Brain Equity Curriculum that incorporates knowledge gained and serves as a platform for bidirectional community and academic learning and knowledge exchange. Upon completion of the project, we will have gained the partnerships, knowledge, and infrastructure necessary to design rigorous clinical trials with equitable representation from communities that shoulder the burden of neurologic disease.