Abstract
Blacks/African Americans have been reported to be ∼2-4 times more likely to develop clinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to Whites. Unfortunately, study design challenges (e.g., recruitment bias), racism, mistrust of healthcare providers and biomedical researchers, confounders related to socioeconomic status, and other sources of bias are often ignored when interpreting differences in human subjects categorized by race. Failure to account for these factors can lead to misinterpretation of results, reification of race as biology, discrimination, and missed or delayed diagnoses. Here we provide a selected historical background, discuss challenges, present opportunities, and suggest considerations for studying health outcomes among racial/ethnic groups. We encourage neuroscientists to consider shifting away from using biologic determination to interpret data, and work instead toward a paradigm of incorporating both biological and socio-environmental factors known to affect health outcomes with the goal of understanding and improving dementia treatments for Blacks/African Americans and other underserved populations.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-10 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Alzheimer's Disease |
Volume | 60 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:[76] (2015) Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Arlington, VA. Available from: http://www.nsf.gov/statist ics/wmpd/
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 - IOS Press and the authors.
Keywords
- Autopsy
- epidemiology
- ethnicity
- neurodegenerative
- neuropathology
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuroscience (all)
- Clinical Psychology
- Geriatrics and Gerontology
- Psychiatry and Mental health