Closing the Equity Gap: Dementia Research With Indigenous Populations

Chair(s)

• JL

  Jordan Lewis, PhD, MSW, FGSA (he/him/his)

  Director of Research, Research Professor
  Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team
  University of Alaska Fairbanks, College of Indigenous Studies
  Fairbanks, Alaska, United States

Co-Chair(s)

• 

  Kristen Jacklin, PhD (she/her/hers)

  Professor
  Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team
  University of Minnesota Medical School
  Duluth, Minnesota, United States

Discussant(s)

• JL

  Jordan Lewis, PhD, MSW, FGSA (he/him/his)

  Director of Research, Research Professor
  Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team
  University of Alaska Fairbanks, College of Indigenous Studies
  Fairbanks, Alaska, United States

Individual Symposium Abstract First Author(s)

• 

  Kristen Jacklin, PhD (she/her/hers)

  Professor
  Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team
  University of Minnesota Medical School
  Duluth, Minnesota, United States
• JL

  Jordan Lewis, PhD, MSW, FGSA (he/him/his)

  Director of Research, Research Professor
  Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team
  University of Alaska Fairbanks, College of Indigenous Studies
  Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
• 

  Melissa Blind, PhD (she/her/hers)

  Senior Research Associate
  Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team - Health Equity
  University of Minnesota Medical School Duluth
  Duluth, Minnesota, United States

  Slides
• 

  Cliff Whetung, PhD, MSW (he/him/his)

  Assistant Professor
  University of Minnesota, Duluth
  Duluth, Minnesota, United States

This symposium highlights community-based work focusing on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) conducted with Indigenous populations across the United States and Canada. We describe not only outcomes and findings of these various projects but also the essential research processes necessary for creating relationships and working with Indigenous partners and communities. We begin with Whetung, who takes a quantitative approach to describe the landscape of cognitive disparities among Indigenous older adults due to structural inequities, in particular, everyday and lifetime discrimination experiences. Next, Blind et al. describe the in-depth and iterative process of cultural adaptation of cognitive assessments. They are currently adapting validated cognitive assessments for Indigenous populations in Canada, this time for urban and reservation-residing American Indian populations. The final presentations by Jacklin et al. and Lewis will focus on qualitative research of cultural explanatory models and lived experience of dementia from the viewpoints of two different participant groups: healthy older adults (Indigenous communities in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario) and caregivers of people living with dementia (Alaska Native). ADRD research with Indigenous Peoples is scarce but growing, and this symposium highlights the innovate, various, and exceptional approaches to this research. This symposium highlights research projects which are rooted in the values of Indigenous knowledges and research methods, community-based participatory research, qualitative research, and the Six Rs of research (respect, relationship, representation, relevance, responsibility, reciprocity; Tsosie et al. 2022). Using these approaches, our research seeks to understand and close the equity gap for Indigenous older adults dealing with ADRD.

Indigenous Peoples Interest Group Sponsored Symposium

Presentations:

• 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PST

  Indigenous Explanatory Models of Dementia: Results From Healthy Older Adults in North America
  

  Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Kristen Jacklin, PhD (she/her/hers) – University of Minnesota Medical School
• 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PST

  Making Sense of a Disease That Makes No Sense: Cultural Understandings of Dementia Among Alaska Native Caregivers
  

  Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Jordan P. Lewis, PhD, MSW, FGSA (he/him/his) – University of Alaska Fairbanks, College of Indigenous Studies
• 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PST

  AMICA Dementia Screening Tools Adaptation: An Intercultural Consensus Approach
  

  Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Melissa Blind, PhD (she/her/hers) – University of Minnesota Medical School Duluth
• 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PST

  Associations Between Discrimination and Cognition Among Indigenous, Black, Hispanic, and White Older Adults
  

  Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Cliff Whetung, PhD, MSW (he/him/his) – University of Minnesota, Duluth