With the singular focus on COVID-19 in both the media environment and in the everyday lives of most people, it was unclear how perceptions of other health conditions shifted, especially among older adults who were particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Research demonstrated a tendency for individuals to allow their attitudes towards one salient issue to impact their attitudes and behaviors towards unrelated, but similar other issues (i.e., spillover effects). Given the emphasis on science and research in COVID-19 discourse, it was important to assess whether older adults’ pandemic experiences “spilled over” to their perceptions of scientific research in ways that may have affected their willingness to participate in Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-related research efforts.

In this project, the team examined how information sources on COVID-19 and the larger context of the pandemic influenced older adults’ perceptions of scientific research and AD, adherence to recommended COVID-19 prevention behaviors, and whether these perceptions varied by racial/ethnic group. This research was critical to determine whether COVID-19 spillover changed how individuals perceived both AD as a health risk and calls to participate in AD research, such as enrolling in recruitment registries.