Global networks to address inequities and disparities in dementia: The case of LAC‐CD and GLoDePP: Public health: Engaging people in ADRD research. (7th December 2020) - Parra, Mario A
Abstract: Background: New initiatives are emerging to bridge countries from the global south and global north to identify barriers that have prevented a global approach to the dementia challenge. The Latin American and Caribbean Consortium on Dementia (LAC‐CD) has demonstrated, over 5 years of intense networking activities, that challenges faced by LAC countries are very similar. The Global Dementia Prevention Program (GloDePP), a network that pursues similar aims, has more recently revealed that this also holds for low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) beyond the LAC region. LAC‐CD and GLoDePP are two initiatives that can merge agendas to widen the characterization of the inequities and disparities affecting countries of the global south and propose actions towards harmonization of research and clinical practices. Methods: From 2015, LAC‐CD has held five workshops. Here we focus on outcomes from the 2015 (Santiago, Chile, 15 experts) and 2019 workshops (São Paulo, Brazil, 160+ members) which revealed a transition from a state of knowledge to specific actions. From 2018, GLo‐DePP has held five workshops in the UK and China involving experts from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Uruguay. GLo‐DePP workshops focused on the state of epidemic preparedness, research contexts, and readiness to join collaborative strategies focusing on prevention and management of dementia. Results: Themes emerging from these workshops were: the need for contextually appropriate tools, more public awareness, identify and modify early and mid‐life risk factors, low‐cost methods to gather biomarker evidence across language and cultural groups, longitudinal brain health cohorts, contextually appropriate m‐health, e‐health, and global data science platforms for dementia prevention, detection, and intervention, evidence to inform: policy and health services delivery, investment priorities, national dementia plans and guidelines for equitable access to dementia management that are contextually adaptable across geographies and cultures (Chan et al., 2019; Parra et al., 2018). Conclusion: LAC‐CD has recently proposed a knowledge‐to‐action framework which will turn such challenges into unprecedented opportunities. Clear strategies are emerging and paving the way towards harmonized agendas across LAC‐CD and GLoDePP (Parra et al., 2019). Such shared agendas shall provide the building blocks for future Global Dementia Strategies.