Persons With Dementia Are More at Risk of COVID-19 Infection, Black Americans Disproportionally So, Study Finds

A study in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association found the risk for contracting COVID-19 is twice as high for persons with dementia than for those without it, reports USA Today . Furthermore, while the overall hospitalization risk during the study was about 25 percent, it was more than twofold for COVID-19 patients with dementia (59 percent). Although overall mortality risk was roughly 5 percent, about 20 percent of patients with dementia died. "Patients with dementia are more vulnerable both to acquire COVID infection and also do much worse with it when they do have it," said Case Western Reserve University Professor Pamela Davis. Moreover, the risk of COVID-19 infection among Black patients with dementia was heightened nearly threefold compared to white patients. Seventy-three percent of Black patients with dementia were hospitalized during the study versus about 53 percent of whites, while 23 percent of Black patients died compared to 19 percent of white patients. North Carolina Central University Professor Brittany Baker suspects that Black people with dementia may be at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 from their adult caregivers. She added that more education and transparency is needed to surmount rational distrust in the medical system after centuries of institutionalized racial discrimination.