Natives Engaged in Alzheimer’s Research (NEAR) Recruitment and Engagement Core

Status: Current

adult filling out paperwork
NEAR Brain Health Event
Community members participating in a Brain Health Event, hosted by the Natives Engaged in Alzheimer’s Research team in American Samoa in April
NEAR conference
Saliva sample testing

NEAR Links

The Natives Engaged in Alzheimer’s Research (NEAR) Recruitment and Engagement Core will apply strategies recommended by the National Institutes on Aging for recruitment and retention in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) research with a commitment to innovative as well as traditional methods to engage communities. These strategies include a network of 8 Satellite Centers led by American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) investigators representing a diverse cross-section of academic and community partners, which will extend the national impact of our work beyond our Research Projects.

The Recruitment and Engagement Core will work with local and community partners to develop culturally acceptable practices related to informed consent, confidentiality and data governance to facilitate the collection of biological samples, or biospecimens, from these communities. The aim is to dramatically increase the meager repository of biospecimens from these groups available for dementia research. Existing research, although severely limited, suggests that genetic risk factors for dementia in Native people may differ in important ways from the non-Native populations in which most research has been conducted. One way this will be accomplished is through the unique and collaborative Recruitment and Engagement Core.

A key component of NEAR is its application of novel strategies to increase recruitment and retention of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) people in research. Our team’s “Brain Health Events” are culturally tailored, hands-on workshops designed to provide ADRD education to AI/AN and NHPI Elders. Event activities include various health assessments, education on informed consent, genetic tests, and biospecimen use research, and an invitation to donate a saliva sample. Participants receive a record of their personal data to take home, and they are invited to enroll in an ADRD registry, which notifies them about future opportunities for research participation.

IREACH Programs

Team Member(s)

Focus Areas

  • Alzheimer's disease and related dementias
  • Engagement
  • Recruitment

Associated Projects