Enhancing Consent for Alzheimer's Research

Alzheimer disease can impair the capacity of patients to give informed consent for research participation. Studies of informed consent involving other patient populations suggest better understanding of consent-relevant information may be achieved through modifications in the consent delivery process, including incorporation of multimedia learning tools into the consent discussion. In the present study, participants with Alzheimer disease and age-comparable healthy participants will be randomly assigned to review a hypothetical research protocol via routine or enhanced consent procedures. Participants will also complete standard cognitive and other rating scales so that we can characterize the sample, as well as evaluate the degree to which specific characteristics may be associated with need for enhanced consent procedures. Advances in the methods to optimize the informed consent process should enable future research participants to make more fully informed decisions.