Survey links people’s racist experiences to Alzheimer’s
RESEARCH SHOWS LOW INCOME AND SOCIAL STATUS INCREASE DEMENTIA RISK
EXPOSURE to institutional racism and racism between persons is associated with lower memory scores, researchers in the US have told a conference this week.
Poorer cognition among old people was linked to experiences of discrimination, said researchers who found that people who experience racism more likely to have poorer memory in middle-age and old-age. The findings were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) in San Diego, US.
In a second study, scientists from University of California looked at experience of discrimination in a study of Asian, black, Latino, white, and multi-racial participants who were over the age of 90.
Those who experienced discrimination throughout life had lower semantic memory (the ability to recall words) in late life compared to those who experienced little to no discrimination. Experts also linked socioeconomic deprivation, including persistent low wages, to higher dementia risk, lower cognitive performance and faster memory decline.
The findings, from four separate studies, also showed that people who experience high socioeconomic deprivation are significantly more likely to develop dementia compared to people who live in more affluent areas.
Researchers at the University of Luxembourg examined data from 196,368 participants’ records – including brain scans – from the UK Biobank. All included participants who also had their genetic risk for developing dementia assessed.
Experts investigated the effect of socioeconomic deprivation – such as low income – and ‘arealevel’ socioeconomic deprivation – such as employment rates – to participants’ risk of developing dementia, and compared it with their genetic risk of the condition.
They found that both individual and area-level socioeconomic deprivation were linked to an increased dementia risk. For people with moderate or high genetic risk, greater area-level deprivation was associated with an even higher risk for developing dementia.
Analysing data from brain scans, they found both forms of socioeconomic deprivation were also linked to a higher incidence of ‘white-matter lesions’ – an indication of brain ageing and damage. Economic adversity and neighbourhood disadvantage were also related to lower cognitive testing scores.
A study by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern looked at perceptions of neighbourhood physical environments and socioeconomic status, alongside a measure of thinking and memory in 3,858 individuals from the Dallas Heart Study.
They found that lower-quality neighbourhood resources, poorer access to food, heating and medical care, and exposure to violence were associated with lower scores on cognitive tests among black and Latino individuals, compared to white participants.
Head of research from Alzheimer’s Research UK, Dr Rosa Sancho, said, “So far, there’s been limited research into whether experiencing racism impacts someone’s risk of developing dementia, so these findings begin to fill in that gap. However, while they suggest that experiencing racism is associated with poorer memory and thinking at two different life stages, the study only followed people up for around a year, so it doesn’t draw conclusions about someone’s risk of subsequently developing dementia.
“A person’s dementia risk is a mix of age, genetics, and other lifestyle factors. Although latest estimates find that 40 per cent of all dementia cases could be prevented, research is constantly uncovering more about dementia and moving our understanding forward. “Larger studies are required to paint a clearer picture at how people’s experience of racism may affect known risk factors for dementia.”
Head of policy at Alzheimer’s Research UK, Dr Susan Mitchell, said: “Studies like this should help inform the development and implementation of social policies that are aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of low-income communities.
“No matter what your age, it is never too early or too late for action to reduce your risk of dementia. Only a third of people in the UK are aware they can reduce their dementia risk – we need government action to help change that and promote the benefits of looking after our brain health.”