School Of Public Health team receives funding for mobile app to prevent dementia In Asian Americans

The project seeks to close the gap in dementia research and treatment for Chinese Americans and Korean Americans

2024-02-13

(Press-News.org) By Ann Kellett, Texas A&M University School of Public Health

A research team led by Junhyoung “Paul” Kim, Ph.D., an associate professor of health behavior in the School of Public Health at Texas A&M University, has been awarded a two-year grant from a Korean foundation to design mobile technology to help older Chinese American and Korean American adults in the United States prevent dementia.

The project is in line with the National Institute on Aging’s priority on increasing participation by Asian Americans in dementia care. This cohort is the nation’s fastest-growing racial and ethnic minority group but receives less than 1 percent of clinical research funding for dementia.

“The majority of Asian American adults were born outside the United States and many have limited English proficiency, which prevents their participation in dementia prevention programs,” Kim said. “In addition, evidence suggests that this underserved immigrant population has similar or higher rates of cognitive impairment as nonimmigrant older adults.”

The team will obtain preliminary data to support a larger, randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of a mobile app that focuses on cognitive function and quality of life for the targeted users. The app would be a new addition to the offerings produced by Silvia Health, a company in Seoul, South Korea, that specializes in dementia-prevention technology for older adults with limited English proficiency.

Previous research by the team suggested that the currently available Silvia Health app improved the memory, psychological health and quality of life of the older Koreans who used it. The new research will gather data related to a proposed new app for older Chinese American and Korean American adults that will cover home-based exercise, mindfulness and relaxation, cognitive activities and voice-based, AI-led cognitive assessments. The app will be provided in multiple languages and content will be culturally appropriate for the intended users.

“Our goal is to reduce cultural barriers that prevent the diagnosis and treatment of cognitive decline and dementia in older Asian American adults,” Kim said. “This research is a step in that direction.”

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Road features that predict crash sites identified in new machine-learning model

2024-02-13

AMHERST, Mass. – Issues such as abrupt changes in speed limits and incomplete lane markings are among the most influential factors that can predict road crashes, finds new research by University of Massachusetts Amherst engineers. The study then used machine learning to predict which roads may be the most dangerous based on these features. Published in the journal Transportation Research Record, the study was a collaboration between UMass Amherst civil and environmental engineers Jimi Oke, assistant ...

Johns Hopkins Medicine-led study shows rapid COVID-19 tests done at home are reliable

2024-02-13

In a study involving nearly 1,000 patients seen at the Baltimore Convention Center Field Hospital (BCCFH) during a five-month period in 2022 — researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, the University of Maryland School of Medicine and five other collaborators report that a rapid antigen test (RAT) for detecting SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can be used at home with accuracy comparable to the same test being administered by a health care professional. The study was first posted online Feb. 13, 2024, in the American Society ...

Researchers learn how nectar-laden honey bees avoid overheating

2024-02-13

Honey bees carrying nectar have the remarkable ability to adjust their flight behavior to avoid overheating when air temperatures increase, according to research led by a University of Wyoming scientist. Jordan Glass, a postdoctoral research associate in UW’s Department of Zoology and Physiology, conducted the study to determine how high air temperatures may limit the ability of honey bees to forage for nectar. His research findings appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world’s most prestigious multidisciplinary scientific journals covering the biological, physical ...

Dr. Jeanne Lackamp to lead university hospitals’ behavioral health efforts

2024-02-13

CLEVELAND – Jeanne Lackamp, MD, DFAPA, FACLP, has been selected to serve as Chair of Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatrist in Chief for University Hospitals (UH), and Director of the UH Behavioral Health Institute. The need for behavioral health services continues to increase locally and across the country. The population is still struggling with the effects of the pandemic, while more people report a sense of isolation and depression. An unprecedented number of Americans are dying from drug overdoses. From popular media to medical literature, calls to address behavioral health needs are on the rise. “Behavioral health is health. It’s ...

Statewide cardiovascular consortium, hosted at Michigan Medicine, receives national award for patient safety, quality efforts

2024-02-13

ANN ARBOR, MI – A collaborative partnership dedicated to improving statewide cardiovascular care and outcomes — hosted at Michigan Medicine — received national recognition for efforts in patient safety and quality Tuesday. The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Cardiovascular Consortium, also known as BMC2, earned the 2023 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award in the local level innovation category. The honor is presented annually by The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum (NQF). BMC2 received the award for its significant improvements in the documentation of radiation use, a decrease in high-dose radiation ...

A new way to let AI chatbots converse all day without crashing

2024-02-13

When a human-AI conversation involves many rounds of continuous dialogue, the powerful large language machine-learning models that drive chatbots like ChatGPT sometimes start to collapse, causing the bots’ performance to rapidly deteriorate. A team of researchers from MIT and elsewhere has pinpointed a surprising cause of this problem and developed a simple solution that enables a chatbot to maintain a nonstop conversation without crashing or slowing down. Their method involves a tweak to the key-value cache (which is like a conversation memory) at the core of many large language models. In some methods, when this cache needs to hold ...

Better diagnosis and treatment of cryptococcosis

2024-02-13

A group of international mycology experts led by Professor Dr Oliver A. Cornely at the University of Cologne has jointly drafted a guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of cryptococcosis, which aims at improving infection management and thus the survival rate of patients. Cryptococcosis is a fungal infection of mainly the lungs that might lead to meningitis. The article ‘Global guideline for the diagnosis and management of cryptococcosis’ was published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Cryptococcosis, ...

Why do flies fall in love? Researchers tease out the signals behind fruit fly courtship songs

2024-02-13

Like a Valentine’s Day dinner or a box of chocolates, male fruit flies have their own rituals for wooing a potential mate. As part of a complex courtship behavior, male flies vibrate their wings to produce a distinctive song that conveys a message to nearby females. Using internal information and cues from females and the environment, males decide moment to moment whether to sing and how. Although scientists now know a lot about how fly movements produce songs, it was still not clear which cells and circuits in the fly’s nervous system enable the behavior. Now, using a suite of novel tools, ...

Polar bears unlikely to adapt to longer summers

2024-02-13

PULLMAN, Wash. – More time stranded on land means greater risk of starvation for polar bears, a new study indicates. During three summer weeks, 20 polar bears closely observed by scientists tried different strategies to maintain energy reserves, including resting, scavenging and foraging. Yet nearly all of them lost weight rapidly: on average around 1 kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, per day. Some have speculated that polar bears might adapt to the longer ice-free seasons due to climate warming by acting like their grizzly bear relatives ...

Gastric bypass improves long-term diabetes remission, even after weight recurrence

2024-02-13

Key takeaways Diabetes remission: Gastric bypass surgery results in high rates of Type-2 diabetes remission five years after the operation, even after patients regain a significant amount of weight. Gastric bypass vs. sleeve gastrectomy: Patients who underwent sleeve gastrectomy and regained their weight were five times more likely to see their diabetes return than patients who had gastric bypass surgery and regained their weight. CHICAGO (February 13, 2024): Adults who have obesity and Type 2 diabetes are much more likely to see their diabetes stay in remission if they undergo gastric ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Linearizing tactile sensing: A soft 3D lattice sensor for accurate human-machine interactions

Nearly half of Australian adults experienced childhood trauma, increasing mental illness risk by 50 percent

HKUMed finds depression doubles mortality rates and increases suicide risk 10-fold; timely treatment can reduce risk by up to 30%

HKU researchers develop innovative vascularized tumor model to advance cancer immunotherapy

Floating solar panels show promise, but environmental impacts vary by location, study finds

Molecule that could cause COVID clotting key to new treatments

Root canal treatment reduces heart disease and diabetes risk

The gold standard: Researchers end 20-year spin debate on gold surface with definitive, full-map quantum imaging

ECMWF and European Partners win prestigious HPCwire Award for "Best Use Of AI Methods for Augmenting HPC Applications” – for AI innovation in weather and climate