{"id":3229,"date":"2009-08-21T07:49:52","date_gmt":"2009-08-21T11:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=3229"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:42:41","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:42:41","slug":"graduate-student-presents-alzheimer%e2%80%99s-research-at-international-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2009\/08\/graduate-student-presents-alzheimer%e2%80%99s-research-at-international-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Student Presents Alzheimer\u2019s Research at International Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Ph.D.<\/a>
Ph.D. student Colleen Jackson led a survey examining how much Americans know about Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Photo by Frank Dahlmeyer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A survey by clinical psychologists in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences shows that Americans know little about risk factors for Alzheimer\u2019s disease or how to protect themselves from the loss of cognitive skills.<\/p>\n

The study, led by a fourth-year Ph.D. student in clinical psychology, Colleen Jackson, shows that \u201cdementia literacy\u201d is low and that people do not know that Alzheimer\u2019s and heart health risk factors are linked.<\/p>\n

Exercising, lowering stress levels, maintaining a healthy body weight, and socializing are known protective factors for Alzheimer\u2019s that most of those surveyed did not recognize.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor as much as there has been an increase in scientific understanding of the disease, there continues to be a need to broadly educate the public,\u201d says Jackson.<\/p>\n

She and her colleagues presented their findings in July at the 2009 Alzheimer\u2019s Association International Conference on Alzheimer\u2019s Disease in Vienna.<\/p>\n

In an online and paper survey of nearly 700 adults, the researchers found that American adults have limited knowledge and a poor understanding of factors that have been shown to increase the risk for Alzheimer\u2019s, such as obesity, high blood pressure, and other heart health risk factors.<\/p>\n

Listen to Colleen Jackson discuss her Alzheimer\u2019s research<\/a><\/p>\n

As more Baby Boomers reach the age when some cognitive decline may be noticed \u2013 the 60s and beyond \u2013 education about how to prevent it is critical, Jackson says.<\/p>\n

While 94 percent of adults surveyed knew that Alzheimer\u2019s Disease differs from normal aging, 66 percent did not know that high stress is a risk factor, and 64 percent did not associate the disease with obesity or high blood pressure.<\/p>\n

Jackson says that dementia literacy, or knowledge about the disease, can be increased by better communication with general practitioners, through education at senior centers, and by informing adults as early as their late 20s of protective measures.<\/p>\n

While there is no known cure for Alzheimer\u2019s Disease, research has shown that the loss of memory and language associated with it can be delayed by lifestyle modifications that maintain brain and heart health.<\/p>\n

Researchers on the \u201cdementia literacy\u201d project were Colleen Jackson; Peter Snyder of Lifespan Hospital System and Brown University Medical School; Kathryn Papp, Ph.D. student in clinical psychology at UConn; and Jennifer Bartkowiak, CLAS \u201909.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study shows that Americans know little about the risk factors for Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[38],"class_list":["post-3229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 05:37:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3229"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37531,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3229\/revisions\/37531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3229"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=3229"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}