Researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center found that notable disparities among Native Hawaiian and Black people could be cause for higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia.
Nearly a quarter of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia in people older than 65 have been linked to underlying health issues, but researchers say it also varies among race and ethnicity.
A University of Hawai‘i study published in the medical journal Neurology last week stated that in a nine-year follow-up, an average of 16,500 participants were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or related dementia.
The study involved about 92,000 participants from the Multiethnic Cohort Study, representing different ethnic and racial backgrounds, including Japanese American, White, Latino, Black and Native Hawaiians. Participants were asked to complete detailed questionnaires about education, health history, sleep patterns and more.
The results showed that risks were linked to controllable factors.
"Our findings confirm that less education, low socioeconomic status, and other risk factors in middle age account for substantial but varying proportions of dementia cases later in life across racial and ethnic populations,” said study author and UH Cancer Center researcher Song-Yi Park, in a news release.
“The study reveals the need for tailored interventions for various racial and ethnic groups, specific to more prevalent risk factors. It also highlights the importance of discovering other risk factors in racial and ethnic groups whose cases are not as well explained by known risk factors.”
The contributing factors varied across demographics:
- Diabetes for Latinos, and also less education and low socioeconomic status
- Low socioeconomic status for Native Hawaiians, and also physical inactivity, and less education
- Low socioeconomic status for Blacks and also low social contact and high blood pressure
- Low socioeconomic status for Whites, and also smoking
- Physical inactivity for Japanese Americans and also diabetes
“There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, so preventing or delaying this disease by reducing controllable risk factors is an urgent public health priority,” Park said.
The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health.
