Eric Griffith

ERIC GRIFFITH, then a graduate student at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, was awarded a grant in April 2016 to aid research on ‘A Cross-cultural Comparison of the Behavioral Variation of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients,’ supervised by Dr. Lynette Leidy Sievert. This project examined two research questions: 1) Do behaviors of Alzheimer’s disease-diagnosed individuals differ significantly between the US and Mexico?, and 2) Do the cultural interpretations of the behaviors of Alzheimer’s disease-diagnosed individuals meaningfully correlate with symptom severity? Data collection took place via interviews with people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers. The interviews consisted primarily of qualitative, open-ended questions with the caregivers and more structured neuropsychological questionnaires with the person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Sleep data were also gathered form the diagnosed participants using personal activity monitors. Interviews were conducted in the USA and Mexico with 57 families. Additionally, secondary data collection took place via informal interviewing and observation at community events related to memory decline in the elderly at both field sites. These data will be used to write several papers on topics including variation in Alzheimer’s disease behaviors in the US and Mexico, how caregiver attitudes relate to Alzheimer’s disease symptoms in the US and Mexico, and differences in response patterns/perceptions relating to Alzheimer’s in open-ended interviews vs. structured questionnaires