This project involves research focus groups designed to evaluate public health messages that encourage adult children to take their parent to a memory specialist or doctor. As part of this project, we are currently recruiting male and female Chinese or Japanese adults with at least one living parent, step-parent, or parent-in-law aged 65 or older. This August, four, 75-minute focus groups will be conducted with 8 to 12 participants each at a convenient location in Seattle. In each focus group, we will share potential public health messages and ask participants for their feedback and input on how they might modify these messages to better fit their communities.
It is important that older adults who have dementia get screened and treated as early as possible – for themselves, their spouses, their adult children, and their care providers. Though this study is being conducted nationwide with African-American and White adults, as well as the LGBT community, we believe it is important to test its messages with Chinese and Japanese adults, as well. Particularly given the limited research on brain health messaging for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the U.S., bringing these voices into a larger study like this is critical to determining the success and generalizability of the study’s findings, overall.
