Whites fare worst with Alzheimer’s disease
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Whites with Alzheimer’s disease have shorter survival than their African American and Latino counterparts, according to data obtained from more than 30 US Alzheimer’s Disease Centers.
“Reasons for this difference may be due to management, genetic or cultural factors,” lead investigator Dr. Kala M. Mehta from the University of California, San Francisco, told Reuters Health.
Mehta and colleagues estimated the survival rates of nonwhite versus white patients with Alzheimer’s disease in a study involving more than 30,000 subjects with probable or possible Alzheimer’s disease. The report appears in the medical journal Neurology.
The average patient was 78 years old and survived for about 5 years after diagnosis.
During an average follow of about 2-1/2 years, 41 percent of whites died. American Indians had the next highest mortality rate at 38 percent, followed by African Americans at 30 percent, Latinos at 21 percent, and Asians at 17 percent.
Although whites were at greatest risk for death, the amount of neurologic damage seen on autopsies was no greater than in the other racial groups.
“Our study did not measure treatment or management specifically,” Mehta explained. “Much more research needs to be done to examine what treatment or management factors improve survival for Alzheimer’s disease patients, regardless of their race/ethnic backgrounds. Treatment or management differences may be only one potential determinant of survival differences.”
SOURCE: Neurology, April 1, 2008.
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