Disparities Persist in Dementia Risk of Black and White Adults

A study published in JAMA Neurology found that the ratio of dementia risk across non-Hispanic black and white individuals in the United States appears to have held steady between 2000 and 2016, reports Psychiatry Advisor . The investigators analyzed data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS), specifically from nine HRS waves. Each wave served as a cross-sectional study to measure racial disparities in dementia prevalence at two-year intervals. Subcohorts with four years of follow-up were nested within the overarching HRS to quantify racial disparities over calendar periods with baseline years in 2000 to 2012, after which their data was added together. Dementia prevalence generally declined over time in both crude and standardized calculations, and point estimates suggested a slight dip in the crude prevalence ratio comparing the groups in later years. However, relative dementia prevalence across both groups did not change significantly. No evidence of shrinking racial disparity over time was indicated after age and sex standardization. Non-Hispanic black participants had an approximately 1.4 to 1.8 times higher incidence of dementia compared to non-Hispanic white participants across all subcohorts.