Alberta PhD student examines dementia in South-Asian community – and the stigma with getting help

Sadaf Murad-Kassam knows the struggle of dementia personally.

“My family had many health issues when I was growing up,” the University of Alberta PhD student said. “I lost my dad when I was six-and-a-half. Then within one year I lost my grandma with dementia.”

This is what made Murad-Kassam go into nursing. She got a Bachelor’s in Pakistan, then came to Canada to get a Master’s, and is now halfway through her PhD at the U of A.

Murad-Kassam is now working on a paper on dementia, specifically in the South Asian community. She says there are many barriers, including that the words “dementia” or “Alzheimer’s” are not translatable in many languages.

“Moving to a new country is incredible, but it’s stressful too,” she said. “You are changing yourself. You are adapting to new culture, you are adapting to new weather, you’re adapting to new language.”

The Alzheimer’s Society of Canada estimates more than 770,000 people have the disease. Roughly 17 people are diagnosed every hour.

It’s believed by 2030, more than one million people will be diagnosed.

Dementia can affect anyone regardless of race, gender, and age.

Specifically in the South Asian community living in Canada, there’s a stigma with getting help.

“They feel sometimes scared to even go to doctors and say, ‘I have some issues,’” according to Murad-Kassam. “Because they fear of labelling, stigma, people will think ‘I’m different,’ people will not give me care.”

One specific factor for increased risk of dementia that is being looked at is migration and coming to a new place.

“They remember their own country, they remember their own people but they don’t remember this country anymore,” Murad-Kassam said. “They don’t remember the language they were talking for the last 30 years when they moved to Canada.”

Other common risk factors include stress, lifestyle like diet, and exercise level.

Murad-Kassam still has two to three more years of research ahead of her before completing her report, and hopefully getting a doctor title next to her name.

“I hope to improve the care for dementia and acute care practices. Especially for ethnic communities because when they go to hospital, hospital is a very scary place for them.”