Study to compare risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease among Africans starts in Nigeria

RESEARCHERS from the School of Arts & Sciences-Newark (SASN) at Rutgers University have received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to explore interactions between genetic and lifestyle risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease among African Americans and the Yoruba people of Nigeria.

The cross-cultural study, in partnership with the University of Ibadan, will help explain the rising rates of Alzheimer’s disease among the Yoruba, leading to better public health efforts and treatment.

The team had chosen to compare African Americans resident in Newark, NJ with the Yoruba people of Nigeria because many Africans brought to the US and enslaved in the mid-1800s were Yoruba. The Ibadan participants will be elderly patients attending the geriatric centre at the University College Hospital, Ibadan.

Dr Adesola Ogunniyi, the study’s co-principal investigator in Ibadan, said the one-year study is important considering the devastating impact the disease has on the affected person, their family members and care providers, all of whom suffer along with the patient.

He said: “We want to see whether environmental factors have changed genetic inheritance over time with regards to Alzheimer’s disease. We are looking at the effect of physical activity and sleep on cognitive loss which can be a symptom of dementia in Yoruba to see whether things have changed over time.

“We know that the burden of dementia was higher in African Americans than in the Yoruba and that vascular factors were probably important. These vascular factors include hypertension, smoking, and fat, which are more common among African Americans. The dietary pattern is also changing. So, improved information will help remove the stigma of Alzheimer’s disease and promote health-seeking behaviours.”

Dr Mark Gluck, a Rutgers-Newark neuroscientist with the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, and the study’s principal investigator, in a release said: “This study is designed to shed light on the interplay between the biological, behavioural, and environmental factors that influence risk and resilience to Alzheimer’s disease. However, physical fitness, sleep quality, stress, and diet all interact with this and other genetic risk factors to affect one’s overall risk for Alzheimer’s disease.”

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Dr Darlingtina Esiaka, a postdoctoral fellow in Gluck’s lab and a co-investigator of the study, said the cultural factors that impact the health of the two groups are very different and could explain why the burden of dementia was higher in African Americans than in the Yoruba.

She said although Yoruba culture has become more Westernised in the last few decades, compared to many Americans, the Yoruba tend to remain more active later in life, are less likely to be socially isolated, and have a healthier diet than most African Americans. These behaviours, she said, can help maintain brain health and reduce risks for Alzheimer’s disease.