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UC Davis researcher highlights dementia disparities and wartime trauma in Vietnamese American communities
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Summary
Wayne Meyer of UC Davis described research showing low federal research representation for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) groups and presented early findings from a National Institute on Aging‑funded study of older Vietnamese Americans that documents high vascular risk and wartime trauma exposure.
Wayne Meyer, associate professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, Davis, told a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services panel that Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities are underrepresented in dementia research and that wartime trauma is an important factor to consider for Vietnamese American caregivers and people living with dementia.
Meyer said a 2019 review found only 0.17% of NIH’s budget had been devoted to AANHPI‑focused clinical research and that fewer than 3% of participants in the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center database identify as Asian American. He urged increased community engagement and culturally tailored recruitment to improve representation in research and clinical trials.
Meyer described the Vietnamese Insights into Aging Program (VIP), an NIA‑funded R01 that aims to recruit roughly 540 older Vietnamese Americans in Sacramento and Santa Clara counties and follow them annually with comprehensive neuropsychological assessments and life‑history interviews. He said the study completed baseline assessments for 548 participants and is in a later wave of follow‑up.
Preliminary findings Meyer presented include high rates of vascular risk factors and traumatic exposures among participants: about 74% reported hypertension, 80% reported high cholesterol and roughly 40% reported diabetes. On traumatic exposures, Meyer reported roughly half the cohort had experienced evacuation or sudden forced moves and about half had seen dead or mortally injured civilians; roughly 40% reported fear of being injured or killed during wartime.
The study uses detailed interviews about early life and migration history; baseline interviews lasted about three and a half hours, Meyer said. VIP’s recruitment and retention strategy emphasized long‑term community partnership with local organizations such as Asian Resources, Inc. (ARI) in Sacramento, community advisory boards, outreach at vaccine and food distribution events and an annual Vietnamese mini medical school offered in Vietnamese.
Meyer drew a connection between lifelong adversity and possible cognitive outcomes and framed inclusion of AANHPI groups in dementia research as both a scientific imperative and an issue of equity. He said community‑based, culturally adapted caregiver interventions can increase Alzheimer’s disease knowledge and reduce caregiver stress, and he recommended researchers consider acculturation, language proficiency and trauma histories when designing outreach and interventions.
Meyer also noted the public‑health importance of inclusion as new Alzheimer’s disease therapies move into practice: “We know so little about how they're going to do in Asian American populations,” he said, and urged enrolling diverse participants in trials and observational studies to understand both risks and resilience factors.
He closed by encouraging long lead time and trust building with community partners, citing recruitment success as evidence that Vietnamese communities will participate in research when engaged respectfully and persistently.
