With more than 20,000 people in Rhode Island, 5 million people in the U.S. and 35 million people suffering worldwide, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is posing a huge problem for our aging population with an enormous physical, emotional and financial toll. We need to find effective ways to delay early developing symptoms or someday even prevent it from developing, as quickly as possible. “Prevent AD” is intended to gather together interested members of the Rhode Island community to help do just that.

One of the first roadblocks to rapidly developing effective prevention strategies for AD is to identify enough volunteers to participate in the important multi center national studies that are ongoing and planned for the near future. By signing up for “Prevent AD”, volunteers will be informed of AD prevention studies for which they may be qualified, as well as receive timely educational information on the latest in brain health.

Prevent AD is dedicated to giving those people at highest risk of Alzheimer’s symptoms access to the most promising treatments for prevention trials. To qualify, volunteers must speak English, be at least 45 years of age, and be willing to take some brief tests of memory to determine eligibility. People with currently normal memory as well as those with only mild memory loss are encouraged to participate. Those who already have a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia are excluded.  Volunteers are encouraged to sign up to be on the Prevent AD mailing list and/or e-mail list.

Volunteers will receive updates and information about important research programs in Rhode Island that are currently recruiting volunteers.  Volunteers will also receive a quarterly newsletter telling them about the latest news in preserving brain health and approaches to Alzheimer prevention.

Volunteers may sign up online or contact Charles Denby directly by phone (401) 444-0789 or email [email protected], for more information. 

Funded by the the National Institutes of Health/NIA/Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study; Long Term Care Group; and Rhode Island Foundation