Abstract
Background
Rural, ethnically diverse older adults face a heightened risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), but experience disparities in dementia education, detection, and treatment. The Covid‐19 pandemic struck during a rural, faith‐based outreach to address this gap. In‐person research activities were redesigned to employ a telephone approach.
Method
The revised research question targeting a rural community of 89% African American, Hispanic, and Haitian Creole residents was adapted to “Is the telephone an effective method for a) increasing AD knowledge, and b) detecting cognitive risk, in a rural underserved setting?” Faith‐based health educators, trained using online Alzheimer’s Association resources, contacted church congregants who responded to announcements during virtual worship services. Participants completed a measure of basic dementia knowledge (BKAD; Wiese et al., 2020), and MoCA‐T with a cut point of 11 indicating need for referral (Nasreddine, 2019) .
Result
Of the estimated 120 persons across five churches who received an invitation, 75% (n = 90) participated in dementia education and memory screening via telephone. Dependent samples t‐test showed a significant increase in dementia knowledge: t(89) = ‐6.3, p < .001), and paired samples pre/post; t(24) = ‐2.23, p = < 004). Of the 60 who completed cognitive screening using the MoCA‐T, 15 (25%) were found to be at risk for memory impairment. Twelve (80%) of the 15 participants assessed as being at risk did follow‐up with their provider.
Conclusion
Rural residents were willing to participate in telephone‐based health‐seeking activities during quarantine, and the Moca‐T was useful in identifying cognitive risk.