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| Oct. 27, 2009 | |||||
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UMSL anthropologist gets Alzheimer's research grant University of Missouri-St. Louis Associate Professor of Anthropology Margo-Lea Hurwicz received a grant from the Alzheimer's Association to help explain how people from different cultural backgrounds interpret and respond to the late-life illness. The three-year, $200,000 grant will allow Hurwicz to interview 300 randomly selected study participants in St. Louis using an automated interviewing system. The project builds on previous studies that used both qualitative and quantitative methods to assess caregivers’ and non-caregivers’ knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease in two ethnic groups. The former studies showed that African-American caregivers and non-caregivers did not have as much information about Alzheimer's as European-American caregivers. "I will be able to interview a larger group of both caregivers and non-caregivers about the nature of Alzheimer’s, including symptoms, causes and risk factors, home care and medical treatments and preventive actions," said Hurwicz, of Bellerive Acres, Mo., who was inducted as a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America last November. The results will help improve the quality of both research and community outreach and service delivery -- especially for African-American caregivers. -END- |