Establishing an Alzheimer's Cohort for South Asian and MENA Populations: Insights from the First Six Months of the SAMENA Study

Initial recruitment efforts highlighted significant challenges in reaching South Asian and MENA populations. Due to the limited evidence on culturally tailored recruitment strategies in ADRD research, we will continue exploring barriers and facilitators by gathering perspectives from multiple stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, community leaders, and high-risk offspring, to refine our recruitment strategies. Another approach is to expand our target group to include individuals with other Alzheimer's and dementia risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes/pre-diabetes, and hypertension. The SAMENA study addresses a critical gap in ADRD research for these populations, whose underrepresentation may lead to missed early intervention opportunities, misdiagnoses from culturally insensitive assessments, and ineffective treatments.