According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s.
The brain disease caused by damage to nerve cells (neurons) in the brain begins 20 years or more before memory loss and other symptoms develop.
The percentage of people with Alzheimer’s dementia increases dramatically with age.
Five percent of people age 65 to 74, 13.2% of people age 75 to 84, and 33.4% of people age 85 or older have Alzheimer’s dementia.
However, it is important to note that Alzheimer’s dementia is not a normal part of aging, and older age alone is not sufficient to cause Alzheimer’s dementia.
The aging of the population, including the baby-boom generation, will significantly increase the number of people in the United States with Alzheimer’s dementia.
The Alzheimer’s Association report estimates that more than 1 million additional direct care workers will be needed between 2021 and 2031 — more new workers than in any other single occupation in the United States. Read the full report here.
UC Irvine’s Center for Neural Circuit Mapping recently announced a $1.4 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to establish a new Alzheimer’s research training program that aims to advance early detection and treatment methods.
Throughout the 1980s, the National Institute of Aging supported the Established Populations for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly (EPESE).
A decade later, they initiated a Hispanic aging funding program, which led to the formation of the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly.
The main goal was to determine the prevalence of important physical and mental health conditions, as well as functional impairments, in older Mexican Americans and compare these estimates with those of other ethnic groups.
The Hispanic EPESE aimed to investigate whether certain risk factors for mortality and morbidity affect Mexican Americans differently compared to non-Hispanic White Americans, African Americans, and other major ethnic groups.
Both the Mexican Health and Aging Study and the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly identified a significant number of likely dementia cases within their respective cohorts.
In both populations, the likelihood of developing dementia increased with age.
Additionally, a lack of health insurance was associated with a higher likelihood of dementia for low-income Mexican American men and women.
Furthermore, living in extended households increased the odds of likely dementia in women but not in men for both studies.
A new study, published July 2024 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, utilized publicly available data from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly.
The cohort study spans two decades and is focused on older Mexican-American adults.
The positive effects of bilingualism have been previously documented, but this new study indicates a strong impact on Mexican Americans, who are at a higher risk for cognitive decline.
According to the findings by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas Medical Branch, published in July 2024 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Mexican American older adults who use both English and Spanish with similar frequency show slower cognitive decline than those who primarily use one language.
The study specifically examined the use of Spanish and English, which are the most commonly spoken languages among the Mexican American population.
Older adults who use both languages more often scored significantly higher on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) than those who mainly use one language.
The MMSE is a 30-point cognitive screener that assesses orientation, registration, attention and calculation, recall, and language.
The UT Austin research was led by Brian Downer, an associate professor in the Department of Population Health & Health Disparities at the University of Texas Medical Branch, along with Stephanie Grasso, an assistant professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at UT Austin’s Moody College of Communication, and researchers Fernando Llanos Lucas, Sadaf Milani, and Neil Mehta.
The researchers were supported by the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Department of Population Health & Health Disparities and Sealy Center on Aging, as well as contributions from UT Austin’s Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and the Department of Linguistics.
The study found that speaking multiple languages and regularly using both in daily life may benefit the cognitive functioning of older Mexican American adults.
Hispanic older adults are 1.5 times more likely to develop #Alzheimer’s than White older adults. Hear from UT Health Austin neuropsychologist Robin Hilsabeck, PhD, about how her targeted research aims to get to the root causes of these health disparities: https://t.co/48mylpDT2O pic.twitter.com/ed1COCIRGA
— UT Health Austin (@uthealthaustin) June 21, 2023
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