Increasing Black elders to see sharp rise in Alzheimer’s

15th December 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Frederick H. Lowe
Contributing Writer

(Special from Blackmans-Street.today and New America Media) — The number of African-American elders will double in only 16 years to 6.9 million people—and the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia will also jump. But experts say people can fight the deadly disease through a number of activities, such as engaging in regular physical exercise and intellectually stimulating pursuits.

Currently, 5.1 million Americans, including one million African Americans, suffer from Alzheim­er’s, the most-widely known form of dementia. But from 2010 to 2030, the number of Blacks entering the age of risk for dementia will more than double to 6.9 million, according to the Alzheimer’s Association’s report “African Americans and Alz­heimer’s Disease: The Silent Epidemic.”

The disease is as much as twice as prevalent among older African Americans and one-and-half times more common in Hispanic elders as among older whites, according to the report. The higher levels of dementia among Black and Latino elders is especially concerning because the ranks of ethnic elders are growing rapidly.

In 2010, there were 3.5 million African Americans ages 65 or older in the United States, and that number is expected to reach 10.6 million in 2050, said Steven P. Wallace, Ph.D., who chairs the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health.

Some of the news on Black aging is good. Speaking to journalists at the recent Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, D.C., Wallace noted that the growth in the elderly Black population is being attributed to better health care, the decline in heart disease, a decrease in smoking and positive changes in diet, said Wallace, chair and professor of the UCLA School of Public Health, Department of Community Health Sciences.

But the main risk factor for developing dementia is age. More than 10 percent of people 65 or older, and nearly half of those over 85 develop Alzheimer’s disease. The ailment is characterized by loss of cognitive function —thinking, remembering and reasoning—and behavioral abilities, to an extent that interferes with a person’s daily life and activities.

Large-scale longitudinal studies indicate that individuals with histories of high-blood pressure or high cholesterol, both of which are common among Blacks, are twice as likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s eventually.

Other researchers at the GSA conference examined issues for family caregivers of those with Alzheimer’s. One session titled “Hanging On to Those Who Are Still Here: The Meanings African American Caregivers Ascribe to Dementia-Related Changes in Care Recipients,” explored how the history of African Americans may influence Black caregivers of relatives with dementia to take a different treatment approach than that of similar white caregivers.

A study by Allison Lindauer, an assistant professor at Oregon Health and Science University, found African American family caregivers felt they needed to “hang on” to what was “still here” in care recipients, despite the personality changes wrought by dementia.

Although her study included a small group of 11 Black caregivers in the Pacific Northwest, Lindauer said this approach, differing generally from that of whites, may stem partly from the Black experience in America.

One caregiver told Lindauer that the African-American caregiving approach is akin to the way Blacks joined together to face slavery and oppression, “when all we had was each other.”

In contrast, she said, studies have shown that white caregivers of relatives with dementia generally consider that those patients have lost their personhood and are just a shell of their former selves.

A related issue is that African-American caregivers tend to be more vulnerable to post-death prolonged grief, which can lead to depression.

What can African American men and women do to fight Alzheimer’s? The Alzheimer’s Association encourages individuals to increase their physical activity, eat a healthy diet, engage in intellectually stimulating pursuits and participate in Alzheimer’s clinical trials so a cure is developed to address the unique needs of Blacks.

This article originally published in the December 15, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.