Researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine have recently discovered that if someone experiences discrimination over the course of their life, they’re more likely to develop dementia! This research was published in a journal called ‘Alzheimer’s & Dementia’ which is run by the Alzheimer’s Association.
Mike Bancks, an expert from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, has studied how experiences of discrimination can lead to health and dementia issues or cause differences among different races when it comes to getting dementia.
Researchers in this study looked at the information taken from a medical research called the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). This medical project involved collecting data from over 6,500 people living in six different cities in the US—Baltimore; Chicago; Forsyth County, NC; Los Angeles; New York City and St. Paul, MN. Every year these people were contacted by phone and asked to come back for five more clinic checkups between 2000 and 2018.
The research team asked people questions about their experiences with unfair treatment in life and on a day-to-day basis. They wanted to know things like if someone had been denied a promotion or treated unfairly by the police. They also asked what the reason was for being treated unfairly, such as if it had anything to do with race, religion, gender, physical appearance, income, or sexual orientation.
We asked people to tell us how often they got treated unfairly in their life.
Out of all the people in a study, 42% said that they had experienced discrimination at some point in their lifetime. This was higher for Black adults, which was 72%. During 15 and a half years researchers conducted an experiment on participants to test if people who reported more than two types of discrimination would have a higher chance of getting dementia. The results found that the chances were greater.
Our research shows that people who have encountered more discrimination in their lives are at a higher risk of getting dementia. It’s clear that African-American adults experience discrimination very often and it can really affect their health. Surprisingly, the link between bias and dementia did not depend on someone’s race or ethnicity.
According to experts, discrimination in a person’s life can be connected to cognitive issues like chronic stress and high blood pressure. These health problems can be caused when the person isn’t getting proper health care or if treatments are not given correctly. More research is needed to learn more about this connection between discrimination and dementia. Scientists want to find strategies that can help reduce the risk for those who experience discrimination.
This study was published on February 1, 2023 in a scientific magazine called Alzheimer’s & Dementia. It was done by some very smart people named Michael P Bancks, Goldie S Byrd and others. They researched how experiences of discrimination can affect people’s chances of getting dementia later in life.
This research was sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Center for Translational Science Development and the National Institute on Aging.
