Title: The Impact of an african drumming for dementia intervention on psychosocial outcomes in african americans with alzheimers disease and their caregivers

Biography:

Kyaien Conner is an adjunct professor in the College of Behavioral and Community Studies at the University of South Florida and is trained in Geriatric Psychiatry. She has published more than 34 peer reviewed publications in scientific journals and book chapters and has received over 1 million dollars in funding to support her research over the course of her career.

Abstract

Culturally relevant non-pharmacological approaches to optimize the functioning of African Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), reduce caregiver burden and provide person-centered care practices are urgently needed. African Americans have a disproportionately high rate of AD, experience a high-rate of AD-related health disparities, and are underrepresented in AD research. Music interventions are low-cost interventions with benefits reported in previous studies including improvements on measures of anxiety and depression, agitation, mood and autobiographical memory recall. African drumming may be particularly beneficial for African Americans living with AD. Our presentation will provide the preliminary results of an open trial whereby we have pilot tested and determined the feasibility of the African Drumming for Dementia intervention for community dwelling African Americans with early stage AD (N= 30) and their caregivers (N=30). The aims of this novel pilot project were to: 1.) assess the feasibility and acceptability of the African Drumming for Dementia intervention; 2.) assess psychosocial outcomes for persons living with early-stage AD including: mood, quality of life, self-esteem and self-efficacy; and 3.) assess the following psychosocial outcomes for caregivers: caregiver burden, mood, quality of life, self-esteem and self-efficacy. Our results provide preliminary evidence that the African Drumming for Dementia intervention is a culturally meaningful therapeutic mechanism that can address measurable improvements in psychosocial outcomes for African Americans with AD and their caregivers