Together We Make the Difference: National Strategy for Recruitment and Participation in Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias Clinical Research

Abstract

The National Alzheimer’s Project Act identifies the effective treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's by 2025 as an urgent public health mission. This priority is reflected in the recent increases in public funding that is accelerating Alzheimer’s and related dementias research. Many drugs and clinical interventions are in rapid development, with the promising ones moving to clinical trials to be tested. There are currently more than 200 on-going clinical trials, seeking more than 270,000 participants, which will require screening of more than a million individuals. With the race to treatment, how inclusive will screenings be to ensure diversification of the citizens volunteering to become trial participants? Underrepresented groups are chronically under-enrolled in clinical research studies. This under-enrollment leads to conclusions about disease risk factors and processes without all the necessary data because the studies are not representative of all people and all life experiences. Ethn Dis. 2020;30(Suppl 2):705-708; doi:10.18865/ed.30.S2.705