Study: Alzheimer's Expected to Soar in U.S. Hispanic Community

Hispanics living in the United States will experience a more than six-fold increase in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias over the next 50 years, according to a report issued May 18 by the Alzheimer's Association.

Warning that dementia is a looming but unrecognized public health crisis in Hispanic communities in the United States, the report projected that 1.3 million American Hispanics would develop Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in the first half of the 21st century, compared to fewer than 200,000 with it today today.

The report attributed the expected rise in Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in this group to the expected increase in life expectancy, high rates of vascular disease and low education levels among Hispanics.

Evidence has been mounting that vascular disease risk factors, including diabetes, may be a risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and stroke-related dementia. To exacerbate the situation, the report noted that Hispanics are low users of medical services and have less health insurance than non-Hispanics, making it less likely that they will receive the medical services needed to monitor and control the conditions that may lead to Alzheimer's.

Hispanics also have the lowest education levels of any group, according to the report, noting that education is thought to have some protective effects against Alzheimer's. One in ten Hispanic elders have no formal education and over half have eight years of schooling or less.

The report also emphasized the burden that Alzheimer's disease places on Hispanic families and communities as family members, particularly daughters and other females, care for relatives for longer periods of time and with higher levels of impairment than non-Hispanic families.

Other sources: Alzheimer's Association