LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A University of Kentucky research assistant is diving into the disparities in Alzheimer's disease and culturally tailored health information, making it easier to digest.
Yolanda Jackson is finishing up her fourth year in a Ph.D. program at UK and is passionate about starting a conversation around Alzheimer's. Her goal is to educate more people on the resources available while making it easier to understand.
"There's things people can do with healthy related behaviors that can impact their chances of getting Alzheimer's disease," explains Jackson.
Jackson connected with First Baptist Church Frankfort, a city with the nation's second-highest prevalence of Alzheimer's in Black adults.
"If Alzheimer's disease disproportionately affects Black Americans or ethnic minorities, we need to help this population, so we don't continue to have all these people that are just suffering from Alzheimer's disease," Jackson stresses.
She proceeded to have a group of church members read a pamphlet from an Alzheimer's clinic, and their end result was confusion.
"When people don't know anything about Alzheimer's disease or they're not aware of any type of thing they can do to prevent this. They feel helpless," Jackson says.
When you provide them with the necessary education, they feel in control of their health again. Through Jackson's research she's discovered: "We think that the environment where ethnic minorities live, what resources are available to them."
Alongside a diet and exercise you choose for yourself. Jackson also found in her research that there eight modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer's:
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Obesity
- Smoking
- Depression
- Cognitive inactivity
- Low educational achievement
- Not being physically active
These are just some of the many reasons why Alzheimer's disease disproportionately impacts ethnic minorities. Jackson hopes as she digs even deeper into her research she'll be able to: "Create health campaigns or interventions. That could look like educational resources, it could look like providing cooking classes, like showing people how to prepare their foods in a way that's more helpful like how to follow the mind diet."
Even though she still has a long road ahead, she's excited for the next step and plans to finish this phase of her research by the end of the year.
