MCOA’s director, Dr. Patricia C. Heyn, participated in a groundbreaking collaborative research paper, where a team of experts from diverse fields joined forces to review and discuss the importance of researching brain health and dementia, explicitly focusing on Brazilian immigrants in the United States.
This perspective review lists recommendations for researchers, health providers, and policymakers to promote greater inclusion of U.S. Brazilian populations in health research and care. The review identifies research areas in need of attention to address health inequities and promote mental/brain health in Brazilian immigrants and their offspring living in the U.S. These research areas are 1) epidemiological studies to map the prevalence and incidence of mental/brain health conditions; 2) research on aging and AD/ADRD risk factors among Brazilian populations in the U.S.; and 3) the need for greater representation of U.S-residing Brazilian population in other relevant research areas involving genetics, neuropathology, and clinical trials. Click here to read the full article.
Figure 1 Summary of the review recommendations. GWAS, genome-wide association studies (Simon et al., 2023)
References:
Simon, S. S., Brucki, S. M. D., Fonseca, L. M., Becker, J., Cappi, C., Marques, A. H., Heyn, P. C., Gonçalves, P. D., Martins, S. S., Busatto, G., Suemoto, C. K., Nitrini, R., Caramelli, P., Yassuda, M. S., Miotto, E. C., Grinberg, L. T., Arce Renteria, M., Alegria, M., Stern, Y., … Bertola, L. (2023). The (in)visible Brazilians: A perspective review on the need for brain health and dementia research with Brazilian immigrants in the United States. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, 9(3), e12425. https://doi.org/10.1002/trc2.12425
