Race and Personal Exposure to AD Influence Projected Memory Failure Attributions and Help-Seeking Behaviors.

Objectives: Examine race and personal exposure to Alzheimer's Disease (AD) on projected memory failure attributions and medical help-seeking thresholds of pre-morbid adults. The goal is to better understand race discrepancies in help-seeking for those potentially at risk for early-onset AD.

Methods: 498 adults aged 40 to 65 (= 52.27), screened for current memory failure, completed an online questionnaire exploring their help-seeking intentions and threshold, attributions of hypothetical memory failures, and level of AD concern.

Results: Non-Hispanic Whites (= 248) were significantly more concerned about AD than African Americans (= 250) (=.027). Personal exposure to AD moderated the impact of race on memory failure attributions (=.036), so that personal exposure was more influential for African Americans. Those who were more likely to attribute hypothetical memory failures to AD had lower projected thresholds for seeking a medical evaluation (=.010). Memory failure attribution emerged as a potential mediator of the impact of race on projected help-seeking behaviors (=.057).

Conclusions: African Americans were more influenced by personal experience when considering the causes of hypothetical memory failures.

Clinical Implications: Healthcare providers should emphasize to African American families the value of early AD detection and treatment in terms of quality of life for both patient and caregiver.