The EU-FINGERS Advisory Board, composed by persons with interest in or affected by memory disorders, started its activities, by discussing the concepts and terminology of prevention of memory problems and dementia. The Advisory Board discussions help the EU-FINGERS Consortium to improve the way the research activities are conducted and disseminated.
Prevention and risk are relatively new areas in the field of Alzheimer´s disease and dementia. The EU-FINGERS Consortium aims to advance strategies for risk reduction and prevention of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s dementia. Towards this goal, the EU-FINGERS Consortium benefits from input from the general public and people with memory disorders (Alzheimer´s or other diseases affecting cognitive abilities).
The EU-FINGERS Advisory Board is a quite large group of persons from many of the countries within the consortium. The Advisory Board was established in January 2021, and activities are led by Alzheimer Europe, in collaboration with the EU-FINGERS´ research teams. Although in-person meetings are currently not possible, the Advisory Board participants have been quite actively engaged in discussions held through e-meetings*
The concept of prevention has been in focus in this first set of e-meetings: how is the idea of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease prevention perceived by the society? What is the best terminology to use when dealing with this topic? Do people think it is possible to reduce the risk of dementia, and if so, how? What would be the main barriers and facilitators to the participation in dementia prevention programs?
Another e-meeting was also done to collect the Advisory Board feedback on a survey being developed as part of the EU-FINGERS project. The survey is directed to clinicians working in memory clinics, with the aim to learn about their perspectives on how to best communicate with patients in relation to the topics of early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia risk and prevention.
The valuable feedback collected through these meetings is elaborated by Alzheimer Europe and presented to the EU-FINGERS research team, to refine the project´s activities.
*Following national and international recommendations to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the EU-FINGERS Consortium has shifted all their in-person meetings to virtual meetings (e-meetings) until further notice.