Alzheimer's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Alzheimer's Disease, including details on diagnosis, memory loss, heredity, treatment, medication.

Change in cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease in African-American and white persons.

Barnes LL, Wilson RS, Li Y, Gilley DW, Bennett DA, Evans DA

Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. lbarnes1@rush.edu

Few studies have examined the association of race with change in cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We studied the rate of decline in global and specific measures of cognitive function in a cohort of 410 older African-Americans and whites with clinically diagnosed AD. Persons were examined annually for an average of 3.5 years, and follow-up participation among survivors exceeded 90%. In mixed-effects models that controlled for age, gender, education, and premorbid reading activity, African-Americans scored lower than whites at baseline on a composite measure of global cognition and on specific measures of visuoconstruction and naming. However, they experienced less rapid decline in episodic memory (p < 0.01), with similar but not quite significant effects for global cognition (p = 0.06), perceptual speed (p = 0.07) and naming (p = 0.08). The results suggest that the rate of cognitive decline in AD is slower in African-Americans compared with whites, particularly for episodic memory.

Published 14 December 2005 in Neuroepidemiology, 26(1): 16-22.
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