Hosted by the Deparment of Psychological & Brain Sciences

Abstract: Due to global population aging, more individuals are at risk of age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In the United States, the prevalence of AD is projected to double over the next 40 years. Much of the population attributable fraction of AD cases reflects modifiable factors, including racially patterned social and structural determinants of health. However, racial inequalities in AD persist even after controlling for known risk factors, pointing to (1) unrecognized AD risk factors and/or (2) differential impact of known AD risk factors. This talk will present data from multiple longitudinal studies of brain and cognitive aging to support each possibility while also providing evidence for resilience within minoritized racial and ethnic groups. In addition, it will demonstrate major challenges to the study of health inequalities in aging and introduce new primary data collection efforts to minimize these challenges and advance the field. Finally, it will highlight related work on modifiable protective factors and competing theories of underlying neural mechanisms.

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