More than 210,000 people in North Carolina have Alzheimer's disease, and the number is growing. The true burden of dementia in the state is higher still, considering those who suffer from less common types of dementia and those who serve as unpaid family caregivers.
The North Carolina Registry for Brain Health aims to help relieve the burden by educating North Carolinians, giving them an opportunity to participate in research, and helping researchers recruit study volunteers.
"Our mission is two-fold — to increase the awareness of North Carolinians about brain health and to get people involved in research to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders," said Kathleen Welsh-Bohmer, PhD, professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke, who co-leads the registry along with Goldie Smith Byrd, PhD, professor of social sciences and health policy and director of the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity at Wake Forest University.
Funded by the state, the registry has three other partner universities in addition to Duke and Wake Forest: East Carolina University, North Carolina A&T State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At Duke, the registry works closely with the Duke-UNC Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
This article was originally published in Magnify, the Duke University School of Medicine's online magazine.