Racial Disparities in Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias from the Disease Progression Perspective

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a progressive brain disorder that causes declined cognition and affects the patients' daily activities. It is the most common cause of dementia in people older than 65 years in America [1]. About 6.2 million people aged 65 and older were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD) in the U.S. in 2021, and the number is projected to increase to 7.2 million in 2025 and to 13.8 million in 2060 [1]. Health disparities are characterized as preventable gaps in the burden of the disease across different races, socio-economic groups, sex or other subgroups. It is noticed that the prevalence of AD/ADRD is higher among African Americans than Whites, which indicates that racial/ethnic disparity may exist in this disease [2]–[4]. There are no efficient treatments to prevent or reverse the progression of this disease. Unlike AD/ADRD patients, people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a prodromal stage of AD/ADRD, can still perform daily activities independently, which makes studies about the progression from MCI to AD/ADRD important. However, limited studies have investigated the potential existence of racial disparities from the disease progression perspective, to the best of our knowledge [5]. This study aimed to fill this gap by evaluating the racial disparities in the progression from MCI to AD/ADRD among African Americans and Whites and examining the promising predictors of disease progression for the overall group and two racial groups separately.