Inside Duke Medicine

Inquiry: Bryan ADRC seeks church subjects

One year ago, a team of Duke researchers from the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (Bryan ADRC) traveled to Jacksonville, N.C., to go to church.

But this was no ordinary visit. It was the pinnacle of a collaborative effort of church and community leaders, along with the Bryan ADRC, to increase participation of African Americans in Alzheimer’s disease research. Current figures indicate that African Americans appear to be afflicted by the devastating disease at a higher rate than whites, and yet participation of African Americans in AD research is low.

“In the mid 1990s, there was a push by the National Institutes of Aging to involve the broader population in Alzheimer’s research. We decided to address this by reaching out to the African American community in North Carolina,” said Kathleen Welsh-Bohmer, Ph.D., director of the Bryan ADRC.

In 1995 the African American Community Outreach Program (AACOP) of the Bryan ADRC was formed with aims to help disseminate information regarding Alzheimer’s Disease, This program, now coordinated by Henry Edmonds, M.Ed., assembled a group of African-American community leaders from across the state to advise and help the Center in its mission to reach underserved groups.

“Historically, there has been a lot of mistrust of medical research programs because of offenses, like the Tuskegee experiment, against African Americans in the past,” said Edmonds. “An important function of the AACOP was to establish partnerships and build trust in these communities.”

That trust was established in part by inviting key members of the community from across the state of NC as research ambassadors. These included from the outset Reverend James Brown, pastor of the First Baptist Church (Broadhurst) in Jacksonville. Brown, whose own mother had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, was an influential and dynamic leader devoted to helping his congregation and community get involved.

Brown helped organize a community partnership between his Church and the Bryan ADRC. The initiation of the partnership began one year ago with the implementation of a successful health fair at his church, which brought together the Bryan ADRC clinical research team and the church members. Of the 127 participants, 30 enrolled in the Bryan ADRC research program. Brown traveled to Chicago to help present the results of the partnership effort at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in July.

“I’m delighted to report that this research partnership has been, and continues to be an unprecedented success. I have received nothing but words of appreciation and thanks from our congregation,” he said. Duke clinicians will return to Jacksonville on Sept. 27th to recruit more volunteers.

Next, AACOP will turn its attention to Duke’s own backyard. “Many of the potential participants in the Triangle remember a time when they weren’t allowed to come to Duke for treatment. We hope to establish replicate Jacksonville’s positive outcomes with the African American community here in Durham.” In so doing, we hope to bring the advances being made in medical research on Alzheimer’s disease to the community here in Durham.