BACKGROUND Statistics suggest that African Americans have a disproportionately high prevalence of Alzheimer disease (AD), yet are less likely to enroll in AD clinical trials than white individuals. Although research has previously identified various barriers to participation, relatively little is known about how to overcome these barriers and engage African American individuals in AD research. The purpose of this study is to better understand how African Americans conceptualize brain health and their ability to influence healthy brain aging. METHODS Three African American community advocates each facilitated a small group of African American participants over 8 to 10 sessions of a photovoice process involving discussion and sharing of images focused on brain health. Sessions were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim and photographs were uploaded. FINDINGS Participants recognized a diversity of what brain health can mean and indicated an interconnectedness between brain health and its influences. Key factors that were identified by group members as key to brain health included lifestyle factors, activity, and engagement and nature, resiliency, and positivity. DISCUSSION These emic insights into perceptions of brain health may represent important foci for targeted messaging strategies to promote brain health and research engagement within the African American population.

中文翻译：

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非裔美国人老年人对大脑健康的看法：“大脑也累了”。

背景资料显示，非裔美国人患阿尔茨海默病（AD）的比例不成比例，但与白人相比，参加AD临床试验的可能性较小。尽管以前研究已经确定了参与的各种障碍，但对于如何克服这些障碍并使非裔美国人参与AD研究知之甚少。这项研究的目的是更好地了解非洲裔美国人如何概念化大脑健康及其影响健康的大脑衰老的能力。方法三位非裔美国人社区的倡导者各自为一小群非裔美国人参与者提供了超过8到10个光声过程的会议，该过程涉及讨论和共享针对大脑健康的图像。会议录音，逐字转录，并上传照片。结果参与者认识到脑部健康含义的多样性，并指出了脑部健康与其影响之间的相互联系。小组成员确定为大脑健康关键的关键因素包括生活方式因素，活动和敬业度以及天性，弹性和积极性。讨论这些关于大脑健康的独特见解可能代表着有针对性的信息策略在非裔美国人人群中促进大脑健康和研究参与的重要重点。