Alzheimer's Club

By Susan J. Landers

Health care disparities and low minority enrollment in clinical trials interfere with crafting solid treatment plans for blacks and other minorities.

Washington -- As research findings coalesce around a collection of risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, it is becoming obvious that poor and minority populations -- the ones most likely to harbor risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes --also are more likely than whites to encounter this brain disorder.

The age-specific prevalence of dementia already has been estimated to be from 14% to as much as 100% higher in blacks than in whites by the Alzheimer's Assn., an advocacy and educational group based in Chicago. And the disease is expected to surge among Hispanics in the coming years. Currently, about 200,000 Hispanics in the U.S. have Alzheimer's. That number could climb to 1.3 million by 2050, according to the association.

Cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol levels, hypertension, obesity, diabetes and fewer years of education all are factors that may increase an individual's risk for Alzheimer's disease, and minorities are overrepresented in all of these factors.

Since there is unlikely to be a cure for dementia anytime soon, a Plan B for addressing the needs of this group of aging, at-risk minorities was offered at the Annual Conference of the National Council on Aging and the American Society on Aging, held March 26-30 in Washington, D.C.

Presented by Richard E. Powers, MD, a geriatric psychiatrist and medical director of the Alabama Dept. of Mental Health and Mental Retardation in Tuscaloosa, the approach covers the reduction of risk factors, early recognition of disease, aggressive therapy, caregiver support and research. Dr. Powers also is the chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America, a national, nonprofit organization founded in 2002 and based in New York City.

The fact that few members of minority groups are enrolled in clinical trials to examine the links between risk factors and cognitive decline can lead to treatment complications, Dr. Powers noted. That has to change, he stressed.

"We need to be able to show an African-American that if you don't take your antihypertensive when you are 50, you will end up like your father -- who had terrible dementia -- when you are 70 or 80."...

Source: Susan J. Landers, AMNews (28 April 2008) [FullText]

Labels: Alzheimer's demography