The dear study: dyad engagement in alzheimer's research

The National Institute on Aging awarded Northern California Institute For Research And Education, Inc. (NCIRE) $641,748 on September 3, 2026, under the Aging Research program (CFDA 93.866) to evaluate novel digital methods for recruitment, engagement, and assessment of older adults and their study partners in the Brain Health Registry, an internet-based cohort supporting Alzheimer's disease and related dementias research.

The five-year project, which runs through May 31, 2031, will develop and deploy study partner-focused recruitment and engagement strategies within the existing Brain Health Registry infrastructure. NCIRE will work with community science partnership boards to ensure community alignment and will recruit 930 dyads, including demographic groups experiencing AD/ADRD health disparities. The study will evaluate the comparative effectiveness of recruitment efforts, including messaging tailored toward study partners and those with mild cognitive impairment, and will collect demographics, dyad-reported subjective cognitive decline, and exposomic factor data capturing social exposures and adversity at individual and societal levels. The work leverages the Brain Health Registry's study partner portal, a scalable tool for remote, longitudinal collection of digital dyad-reported subjective cognitive decline assessments.

Place of performance is California.

Abstract

This project will evaluate novel, digital methods for recruitment, engagement, and assessment of older adults and their study partners (DYADS) in the brain health registry (BHR), an internet-based cohort to facilitate alzheimer's disease and alzheimer's disease related dementias (ad/ADRD) research and trials. Ad/ADRD are an immense and growing public health threat causing disability and death in millions of older adults. The burden and expense of recruitment, screening, and longitudinal monitoring of cognition and everyday functioning in trials and observational studies slow progress. Study partners (someone who knows the participant well, e.g., a spouse or adult child) are required for ad studies. They are an efficient and reliable source of information about participants' decline in cognition and everyday functioning. This 5-year, longitudinal, study will evaluate study partner-focused recruitment, engagement, and assessment of dyad-report of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) in the BHR, an internetbased digital cohort. We will leverage the existing infrastructure and cohort of the BHR study partner portal, a scalable tool for remote, longitudinal collection of digital dyad-report SCD. We will work in partnership with community science partnership boards to ensure community alignment at all study stages. We will develop, deploy, and evaluate engagement strategies tailored towards reaching the study partners of older adults. We will collect demographics, dyad-report SCD, and exposomic factor data (social exposures and adversity at the individual and societal level). In aim 1, we will recruit 930 DYADS, including demographic groups who face ad/ADRD health disparities. We will evaluate the comparative effectiveness of recruitment efforts, including messaging tailored towards study partners and those with MCI. We will identify participant characteristics (demographic, exposomic, cognitive) associated with recruitment and engagement effectiveness. In aim 2, we will use the longitudinal data collected to characterize dyad-report SCD. We will estimate associations between dyad-report SCD and objective cognition and decline, and evaluate the accuracy of dyad-report SCD to identify those with MCI. In aim 3, we will investigate the contributions of demographics, exposomic factors, depressive symptoms, and dyad relationship to dyad-report SCD. Throughout the study, BHR participants and study partners will be referred to collaborator studies, providing a resource to broadly facilitate recruitment into ad studies. The overall impact: this study addresses the NIA priority areas of improved ad/ADRD research recruitment and development of early cognitive assessment tools. Recruitment and engagement methods focused on DYADS and MCI can be adapted to broadly improve recruitment for ad research and trials. Characterization of dyad-report SCD, including contributions of exposomic and other key factors, can inform use of SCD for screening, assessment, and longitudinal monitoring of older adults for ad risk in future studies and trials, and in clinical care settings.