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. 2022 Sep;18(9):1625-1634.
doi: 10.1002/alz.12528. Epub 2021 Dec 9.

Risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementia by sex and race/ethnicity: The Multiethnic Cohort Study

Unhee Lim  1 , Songren Wang  2 , Song-Yi Park  1 , David Bogumil  2 , Anna H Wu  2 , Iona Cheng  3 , Christopher A Haiman  2 , Loïc Le Marchand  1 , Lynne R Wilkens  1 , Lon White  4   5 , V Wendy Setiawan  2
Affiliations

Risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementia by sex and race/ethnicity: The Multiethnic Cohort Study

Unhee Lim et al. Alzheimers Dement. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Introduction: Data are limited for comparison of sex- and race/ethnicity-specific risks of Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD).

Methods: In the population-based Multiethnic Cohort, we estimated the age-standardized diagnostic incidence rate (ASDIR) and relative risk of late-onset ADRD (n = 16,410) among 105,796 participants based on Medicare claims (1999-2014) by sex and race/ethnicity.

Results: The ASDIR for ADRD was higher for women (17.0 per 1000 person-years) than for men (15.3) and varied across African Americans (22.9 in women, 21.5 in men), Native Hawaiians (19.3, 19.4), Latinos (16.8, 14.7), Whites (16.4, 15.5), Japanese Americans (14.8, 13.8), and Filipinos (12.5, 9.7). Similar risk patterns were observed for AD. Adjustment for education and cardiometabolic diseases attenuated the differences. Accounting for deaths from competing causes increased the sex difference, while reducing the racial/ethnic differences. Less racial/ethnic disparity was detected among apolipoprotein E (APOE) e4 carriers.

Discussion: More research is needed to understand the sex and racial/ethnic differences in ADRD.

Keywords: Alzheimer's dementia; dementia with Lewy bodies; diagnostic incidence rates; frontotemporal dementia; prospective studies; racial/ethnic disparities; vascular dementia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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