Mantenga su mente activa: Increasing awareness of alzheimer's disease in the Latino community through multifaceted awareness campaign

According to the Alzheimer's Association, with the high prevalence of associated risk factors, such as older age, low socioeconomic status, and the presence of vascular disease, Latinos face a greater risk of Alzheimer's disease than the general population. In fact, older Hispanics are at least 1.5 times more likely than older Whites to suffer from Alzheimer's and other dementias. Experts estimate that by 2050, the number of individuals aged 65 and older with Alzheimer's is projected to number between 11 million and 16 million—more than double today's incidence. To address this issue the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) developed and implemented an Alzheimer's education program, Mantenga Su Mente Activa. The program has been adopted by 24 community-based organizations from NCLR's national affiliate network and continues to be shared among their Latino constituents. The backbone of the program used NCLR's promotores de salud (community health workers) model. This was complemented by community awareness campaigns that used a Spanish-language radio PSA and a Spanish-language awareness video. Mantenga Su Mente Activa has reached over 3,500 Latinos in 20 communities through face-to-face programming, while the PSA and video have reached over 7 million impressions nationwide. Participants in the educational program have demonstrated increased knowledge and awareness of Alzheimer's symptoms, risk factors, and resources. There was, for example, a 250% increase in the number of participants that could identify at least one support resource for Alzheimer's disease.