A Culturally-Relevant Approach to Reducing Dementia Caregiver Stress in an Underserved Population

 描述（由申请人提供）：亚裔美国人目前是美国增长最快的族裔群体，因此，患有阿尔茨海默氏症（AD）的亚裔美国人及其家庭照顾者的数量也将增加。令人惊讶的是，很少有干预工作集中在解决这一人群的照顾者需求。具体而言，在制定干预措施以减少照顾者压力方面存在很大的差距，并且对文化多样性如何影响照顾者压力和干预结果知之甚少。Meyer博士将获得指导研究科学家发展奖（K 01）所需的技能，培训和指导，以进行社区参与的干预措施，以减轻文化多样性家庭照顾者的AD负担。该K 01奖的建议指导研究活动是完善和试点测试一个理论上知情的，文化相关的，以社区为基础的干预措施，通过社会文化压力和应对和社会背景模型，以减少痛苦和提高福祉在越南裔美国痴呆症护理人员。通过关注这一庞大且服务不足的人群，K 01应用程序符合NIA研究目标E：提高我们减少老年人健康差距和消除健康不平等的能力。它也响应国家阿尔茨海默病项目法案（NAPA），让更多种族/民族多样化的老年人参与研究，并开发有效的服务来支持种族多样化的家庭。该应用程序包括在三个关键领域的经验和研究活动迈耶博士的职业发展：（1）AD和相关痴呆症的知识（例如，风险因素、评估和诊断、课程）和认知障碍及其如何影响家庭，（2）进行社区参与干预研究的方法技能和文化知识，包括基于社区的参与性研究各方面的正规培训（例如混合方法）和越南文化和语言的增强知识，以及（3）设计，实施，并分析针对文化多样性人群的科学严谨的干预措施（例如，设计问题，纵向数据分析）。指导性研究培训将在一个有两个目标的重点研究项目的背景下进行：（1）完善和手动化文化知情的干预措施，以减少越南痴呆症护理人员的痛苦和提高福祉，以及（2）在随机对照试验中检查试点干预的可行性和可接受性。完成拟议的研究和职业发展活动将产生数据，为R34或R21应用程序的开发提供信息，并为Meyer博士提供从观察/描述过渡到基于社区的干预工作所需的经验。Meyer博士将利用加州大学戴维斯分校三个NIH资助中心的现有资源和专业知识：阿尔茨海默病中心，少数民族老龄化研究资源中心以及临床和转化科学中心。这些资源，沿着指导团队与当地社区组织的强大合作关系，将提供一个丰富的环境，帮助Meyer博士成为一名成功的独立研究者。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Asian Americans currently are the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S., thus, the number of Asian Americans with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their family caregivers will also increase. Surprisingly, very little intervention work has focused on addressing caregiver needs in this population. Specifically, a large gap exists in the development of interventions to reduce caregiver stress and little is known about how cultural diversity impacts caregiver stress and intervention outcomes. This Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) will give Dr. Meyer the skills, training, and mentoring necessary to conduct community-engaged interventions to reduce the burden of AD in culturally diverse family caregivers. The proposed mentored research activities for this K01 award are to refine and pilot test a theoretically-informed, culturally-relevant, community-based intervention informed by sociocultural stress and coping and social contextual models to reduce distress and enhance well-being in Vietnamese American dementia caregivers. By focusing on this large and underserved population, this K01 application is consistent with NIA Research Goal E: Improve our ability to reduce health disparities and eliminate health inequities among older adults. It als responds to the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA) to involve more racially/ethnically diverse older adults in research and to develop effective services to support ethnically diverse families. This application includes experiential and research activities in three critical areas fo Dr. Meyer's career development: (1) knowledge of AD and associated dementias (e.g., risk factors, assessment and diagnosis, course) and cognitive impairment and how they affect families, (2) methodological skills and cultural knowledge to conduct community-engaged intervention research, including formal training in aspects of community-based participatory research (e.g. mixed methods) and enhanced knowledge of Vietnamese culture and language, and (3) theoretical and methodological skills necessary to design, implement, and analyze scientifically rigorous interventions for culturally diverse populations (e.g., design issues, longitudinal data analysis). Mentored research training will occur in the context of a focused research project with two aims: (1) Refine and manualize a culturally- informed intervention to reduce distress and enhance well-being in Vietnamese dementia caregivers, and (2) Examine the feasibility and acceptability of the pilot intervention in a randomized controlled trial. Completion of the proposed research and career development activities will generate data to inform the development of an R34 or R21 application and provide Dr. Meyer with the experience necessary to transition from observational/ descriptive to community-based intervention work. Dr. Meyer will leverage existing resources and expertise at three NIH-funded centers at UC Davis: the Alzheimer's disease Center, the Resource Center for Minority Aging Research, and the Clinical and Translational Science Center. These resources, along with the mentoring team's strong, collaborative relationships with local community-based organizations will provide an enriched environment that will help Dr. Meyer to be a successful and independent investigator.