How a USF Researcher is Using Her Work to Support Her Community

By Kaila Garton-Miller

African Americans are twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s disease and the Hispanic population is about 1.5 times more likely to get it compared to White non-Hispanic Americans. Many are less likely to be diagnosed and due to socio-economic conditions, their families struggle to find help.

That’s where researchers such as Dr. Angela Massey Hill comes in. As program manager for WE-CARE, Hill recruits patients with diverse backgrounds to take part in Alzheimer’s research. She’s been investigating dementia risk factors among minority patients for nearly a decade.

WE-CARE (Workgroup Enhancing Community Advocacy Research & Education) at the University of South Florida works to improve health outcomes among minority populations by connecting them with researchers.

Her decision to focus on Alzheimer’s is personal. Both her mother’s father and her father’s mother lived with the disease. When her grandfather came to live with them, she better understood what it meant to families.

“As his disease progressed, I saw the mental toll that it took on my mom, so the caregiver impact has been one of the things that has always stood out to me,” she said.

Hill says she prides herself on providing educational workshops and other support mechanisms for caregivers because they can get burnt out trying to handle their own lives as well as taking care of others. 

“In some populations, like the African-American and Hispanic population, their preference is to keep their loved ones at home versus putting them in a nursing home or long-term care facility partially because of culture and the cost, which are prohibited,” she said.

Among Black Americans ages 70 and older, 21.3% are living with Alzheimer’s. This propelled her to write an endowment grant to her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, to start exploring biomarkers that may explain why African Americans at such high risk.

“When we look at what’s out there, in terms of biomarkers and genetics, the data doesn’t stack up for those groups. There are other factors that are genetic in nature.”

She’s seen Alzheimer’s research make significant inroads, especially when it comes to drugs that help to slow down its progression.

“Now, we have newer medications that, when introduced early on, can really truly modify the progression of the disease, and I think that’s going to be really valuable in terms of quality of life for patients,” she said.

With 20-plus years of research experience, Dr. Hill has learned that the next step to take is prevention.

“Prevention is key. A lot of our risk factors have to deal with what we eat, how much we exercise, etc. It’s become more of a health problem that a lot of times could be prevented, if we ate correctly and exercised.”

Hill also is working with the Alzheimer’s Association to develop more community engaging work including an Alzheimer’s forum. The future is bright when it comes to dementia research as Dr. Hill has paved the way for young researchers.

“I have former students and mentees, who are now able to go out and do the same things that I’m doing because I’ve been fortunate to be in environments that are really unique and outside of the norm for what the average pharmacist gets the chance to do every day.”

Dr. Hill hopes to utilize her personal and professional interest in dementia care to help patients of diverse backgrounds to navigate their way with this disease and to provide education not only to patients and their families but also her pharmacy colleagues.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another dementia, we want you to know that you are not alone. The Alzheimer’s Association is the trusted resource for reliable information, education, referral and support to millions of people affected by the disease.

Learn what the Alzheimer’s Association is doing to provide care and support and address disparities for African Americans living with Alzheimer’s or another dementia at https://www.alz.org/help-support/resources/black-a