COVID-19, Social Distancing, and Cognitive Impairment in 1Florida ADRC participants
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With ~560,000 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and >4 million residents >65 years old, Florida will continue to be, an epicenter of the AD epidemic in the United States. The 1Florida ADRC is a collaboration between Florida institutions, including the University of Florida (UF), Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach (MSMC), University of Miami (UM), Florida International University (FIU), and Florida Atlantic University (FAU). The 1Florida ADRC’s global mission is to work with other ADRCs and AD stakeholders to change the understanding of AD and related dementias (ADRDs) so AD+ADRDs are more quickly and accurately diagnosed, more effectively treated, and ultimately prevented or cured. Multiple studies suggest a higher incidence of dementia among Hispanics and other underrepresented minority populations (URM). Our successful recruitment and evaluation of a majority Hispanic cohort has enabled us to begin to evaluate whether there are differences in AD+ADRDs between Hispanics and non-Hispanics in South Florida. Enhancing our understanding of dementia in ethnically and racially diverse populations is a major theme of our ADRC. The SARS-CoV-2 or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (COVID-19) pandemic could prove especially detrimental to the health and well-being of individuals with cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD). We believe this pandemic has placed our clinical core cohort and indeed all families affect by AD+ADRD under a great deal of stress. In this supplement, we will leverage our successful institutional and investigator partnerships to further expand our engagement and longitudinal follow up of participants with ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and genetic diversity, as well as comorbidities associated with AD (e.g., vascular disease, Lewy Body Dementia (LBD)). The specific aims of this supplement are to examine: 1) Effects of social isolation stress as a result of COVID-19 on mood, function, behavior and cognitive status 2) Effects of cognitive impairment severity on social distancing behaviors. 3) Extent of access and proficiency with video communications technologies 4) Extent of interest in participation in a telecommunications delivered supportive group program among those participants with video communications technology access.
