Methodological Framework for the Design and Implementation of a US Latine-Hispanic Digital Brain Health Program:...

US Latine and Hispanic communities face a 1.5 times greater risk of developing Alzheimer disease and related dementia (ADRD) with limited access to culturally and linguistically congruent primary prevention education. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the digital divide, highlighting a need to focus on alternative digital methods for delivering brain health and ADRD primary prevention education. Social media emerged as a promising tool.

The objective of this paper is two-fold. We first describe the development and pilot study of our social media-based Latine-Hispanic Digital Brain Health Program guided by evidence-based frameworks in ADRD. We then present the quantitative and qualitative results from the first 14 months of the program (October 2023-December 2024).

We used human-centered design to develop the Digital Alzheimer Health Education Model, which was implemented via 3 social media platforms-Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter). Our bilingual and bicultural team implemented the model by creating and disseminating tailored educational content in English and Spanish for the resulting Latine-Hispanic Digital Brain Health Program, emphasizing consistency and rapport, storytelling, cultural relevance, linguistic inclusivity, and visual representation. A mixed methods analysis (descriptive statistics and sentiment analysis) was conducted using social media data analytics and users' comments to guide program evaluation and refinement.

From October 2023 to December 2024, we retained 857 followers across our social media platforms (Instagram: n=534; Facebook: n=124; and X: n=199). Growth in follows, consistent reach and engagement, and positive sentiment were observed on Facebook and Instagram. X was not included in the analysis due to data access limitations.

The development and pilot study of the Latine-Hispanic Digital Brain Health Program have demonstrated potential in leveraging social media to disseminate brain health and ADRD prevention education to the US Latine and Hispanic communities in English and Spanish. Our preliminary findings demonstrate that culturally and linguistically congruent social media-based approaches hold potential to improve engagement with brain health and ADRD primary prevention education among US Latine and Hispanic populations.