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Racial, Ethnic, and Sex/Gender Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

CO-SPONSORED BY THE BARD COLLEGE PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAM 

Join us for the next session of the Gender Equality and the Economy Speaker Series, with A. Zarina Kraal, Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain & Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Despartment of Neurology, on Tuesday, November 19th, from 5pm to 6pm in the Levy Conference Room at Blithewood, or on Zoom. Dr. Kraal's presentation will be followed by an open Q&A session with audience members—both those in person and on Zoom are welcome to ask questions. 

Light refreshments will be served.

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Approximately one in nine U.S. adults age 65 and older (nearly seven million) has Alzheimer’s disease. Health and long-term care costs for people living with Alzheimer’s are projected to reach $360 billion in 2024 and nearly $1 trillion in 2050. Racial, ethnic, and sex/gender disparities in Alzheimer’s and related dementias (ADRD) are notable: almost two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women. Black and Latinx adults are almost twice as likely than non-Latinx White adults to develop ADRD.

Despite these stark disparities, most prior research on risk and resilience factors associated with ADRD has been conducted in non-Latinx white adults. This presentation will discuss empirical findings on cardiometabolic and psychosocial factors that heighten risk for and confer resilience against ADRD, emphasizing racial, ethnic, and sex/gender disparities in observed associations. This presentation will draw on findings from two U.S.-based longitudinal cohorts of middle-aged and older adults, the Health and Retirement Study and the Offspring Study of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in AD.

Dr. A. Zarina Kraal is a postdoctoral research scientist at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain and the Department of Neurology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She obtained her PhD in clinical psychology, specializing in neuropsychology, from the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on identifying biopsychosocial factors across the life course that drive the impact of cardiometabolic diseases on accelerated cognitive and brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in racially and ethnically diverse groups.

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