The Dementia Prevention Research Clinic (DPRC) study is a national, multi-disciplinary, longitudinal research study that aims to improve understanding of Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia, in order to develop interventions that delay or prevent progression to dementia.  This national cohort (266 participants enrolled to date) provides an opportunity to explore potential risk or protective factors within the ethnic diversity of the Aotearoa, New Zealand population. The numbers affected by dementia in Māori are not yet known, but the number of kaumātua 65 years or older increased by 41% between 2013 and 2018 suggesting a disproportionate increase in the prevalence of dementia for Māori is expected. Ensuring inclusion of Māori is therefore critical, not only to understand their specific risk for already identified modifiable risk factors for dementia, but also because we may identify novel risk factors, and unique protective factors that can be used to promote longer healthy lives. 

So far, however, the numbers of Māori participants are well below what is needed. One possible reason for the low participation rate is that Māori are too whakama (shy) to access the clinic in its current location. In response, the researchers are conducting hui with local Māori communities with the kaupapa of taking the research clinic out into their communities for easier access and increased participation by Maori. The DPRC will also work with the Māori community to co-develop a research model that incorporates a Māori holistic approach to health and wellbeing. Researchers have identified that often insufficient attention is paid to the concept of spirituality in scientific research, yet Dudley et al (2019) found that disruption of wairuatanga (spirituality) was a central and unifying theme in Māori understandings of dementia. Ongoing hui will work towards identifying how best to accommodate those cultural needs of Māori, for example, including Rongoa Māori (Māori healing) practices in a way that enhances participant and inclusion and compliments scientific excellence. Another initiative that is anticipated to encourage Māori involvement is the use of the Māori Assessment of Neuropsychological Abilities (MANA) (Dudley tool, currently under development, which has at its foundation a wairuatanga component.)