Health-professional Education Partnership Initiative - Transforming Ugandan Institutions Training Against HIV/AIDS (HEPI-TUITAH)

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Abstract Dementia is the third leading cause of disability adjusted life years globally, affecting individuals, families, and communities, driving many households below the poverty line. Dementia is mainly diagnosed among persons aged 65 years or older, with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) contributing 50–70% of the cases, the Despite availability of dementia diagnostic tools, 62% of cases of ADRD) worldwide are undiagnosed, while 91% of those that are diagnosed, are diagnosed very late. Early diagnosis prompts early evaluation and timely access to information, medical treatment, support for caregivers, and targeted community interventions. remaining contributed by other dementias. Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ In Africa, patients who present with dementia rarely receive proper care because the condition is regarded as part of normal ageing. While the true picture of AD in Uganda is not known, our previous work, under the D43TW010128 program, estimated the prevalence of dementia in rural south western Uganda at 20%. Although consensus guidelines on the assessment for AD/ADRD are clear, we found knowledge gaps in the assessment and management of AD/ADRD among primary healthcare providers in rural Uganda. We propose the “Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Health Professions Training Initiative (ARDHePTI)” to expand on the scope of the current Health-professions Education Partnership Initiative- Transforming Ugandan Institutions Training Against HIV/AIDS-R25TW011210, by including education and research in AD/ADRD while leveraging on the investment of the Mbarara Alzheimer’s and related Dementia Research Initiative D43TW010128-04S1 To train health professions (HP) undergraduate students in basic biomedical and clinical AD/ADRD, by providing the following training in AD/ADRD: (i) epidemiology and neuropathology (ii) biomarkers and clinical diagnosis, and (iii) treatment and caregiving to patients; b) To conduct practica on care models for AD/ADRD at facilities that care for the elderly with dementia in Uganda, gaining skills in dementia assessment and management in real life models of care for the elderly with AD/ADRD in Uganda; and c) To train health professions (HP) undergraduate students in research methodology to conduct mentored research in AD/ADRD in rural Uganda, using a hybrid of asynchronous (use of pre-recorded materials) and synchronous (in-person using the Structured Operational Research and Training IniTiative [SORT IT] approach). We will competitively select and provide HP students with skills in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to enable assessment of the behavioral and social risk factors of AD/ADRD; linkage between pregnancy complications and development of AD; exposure to CNS infections during early childhood; the role of traumatic brain injury in the development of dementia; and multimorbidity chronic conditions. At the end of which, we will have preliminary data that will lead to the development of interventional studies in AD/ADRD in Uganda. . This will be achieved through the following Aims: a)