U. S. Study: Race and Dementia Risk - Asians at 28%, Pacific Islanders 25%

Dementia and Race

People of certain ethnic and racial groups could be at a greater risk for dementia, regardless of their geographic region, a significant new study says. Researchers analyzed the dementia rates of nearly 275,000 people in Northern California, across six different groups, and found a racial disparity. 

The study, published in the journal, Alzheimer's and Dementia, used a sample of participants with roughly the same racial demographics as the U.S. population. Researchers from the University of California San Francisco, which led the study, say the findings are monumental for dementia research as many other studies have had limitations due to the lack of diversity.

They looked at electronic health records of members of the Kaiser Permanente healthcare system for over 14 years and found that blacks, American Indians and Alaskan Natives have a much higher risk for developing dementia after 65 when compared with Asians and Pacific Islanders.

"Most research on inequalities in dementia includes only one to two racial and ethnic groups, primarily whites and blacks,” researcher Elizabeth Rose Mayeda, of the University of California, San Francisco, said in a release. “This is the only research that directly compares dementia for these six racial and ethnic groups, representing the true aging demographic of the United States in a single study population.”

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News story from The Huffington Post.