Building Research Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias in Cote d'Ivoire

PROJECT SUMMARY Most research on Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) is set in higher income contexts in North America, Europe, and Asia, yet (1) the burden of AD/ADRD is rapidly increasing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA); (2) the field can learn more about the etiology of AD/ADRD from studying it in contexts that have different patterns of exposure: for example, older individuals in SSA are more likely to live in rural areas, have longer labor force participation, and different disease vulnerabilities; and (3) there is relatively little expertise in neuroscience and AD/ADRD research outside of high-income contexts. To address these issues, we propose a collaboration between Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHBSPH) in the United States and École Nationale de Statistiques et d’Economie Appliquee (ENSEA) in Cote d’Ivoire to jointly build the research infrastructure to study AD/ADRD in a new context by creating a set of reusable tools that will be employed by the ENSEA team independently for continued research after this project is completed. This project will proceed in two phases. In the first, the UG3 phase, our goals are to establish data collection and research protocols for the 40+ population in Cote d’Ivoire and develop a network of stakeholders involved in aging-related policies and programs. For the second phase (UH3), we intend to collect data on dementia for a representative sample of approximately 4500 adults aged 40 and older in Cote d’Ivoire and conduct research that identifies risk factors for AD/ADRD in Cote d’Ivoire.