Rationale and Design of a Clinical Trial of Adapted Tango to Improve Negative Health Impacts in Middle Aged African-American Female Caregivers of Persons with Alzheimer’s Disease (ACT Trial)
Affiliations: [a] Department of Medicine, Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics, Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA
| [b]
Atlanta VA Center for Visual and Neurocognitive Rehabilitation, Decatur, GA, USA
| [c] Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA
| [d]
Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, USA
| [e]
Emory University College of Arts and Sciences, Atlanta, GA, USA
| [f] Department of Neurology, Atlanta, Emory University School of Medicine, GA, USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Dr. Madeleine E. Hackney, PhD, Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics, Department of
Medicine, Emory School of Medicine, 1841 Clifton Rd NE, #553; Atlanta, GA 30307, USA. Tel.: +1 404 321 6111/Ext. 5006;
E-mails: mehackn@emory.edu and madeleine.hackney@va.gov.
Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating progressive neurodegenerative disease resulting in memory loss and a severe reduction in ability to perform activities of daily living. The role of caring for someone with AD frequently falls to female family members, often daughters. The burden of caregiving can increase stress and anxiety and cause health decline in the caregiver. The combination of ethnicity-related genetic factors promoting the development of dementias among African-Americans (AA) and the increased risk among women for developing AD means that AA women who are caregivers of a parent with AD are at great risk for developing dementias including AD. The proposed study would compare the cognitive, motor, and psychosocial benefits of a well-established 12 week, 20-lesson adapted Argentine Tango intervention (N = 30) to a no-contact control group (N = 10) in middle-aged (45–65 years) AA women who are caregivers of a parent with AD in the metro Atlanta area.
