Older Native Americans, African Americans with Diabetes have High Dementia Risk

Elderly Asian Americans with type 2 diabetes carry lower risk of dementia than the older generation of Native Americans and African Americans, researchers have found.

The study, reported in the journal Diabetes Care, is the first study to focus at racial as well as ethnic differences in the risk of dementia in older adults with diabetes. The study involved 22,000 patients aged 60 or older. All participants were enrolled in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Diabetes Registry and none of them suffered from dementia at the start of the study.

During the study (that lasted for 10 years), nearly 3,796 patients were diagnosed with dementia. On evaluating the data, the researchers noticed that nearly 64 percent of the Native Americans had higher chances of develop dementia when compared to Asian Americans. Also, African Americans were 44 percent more likely to develop dementia. During the 10 year follow up study, nearly 20 percent of the African Americans and Native Americans were diagnosed with dementia.

"We found that in a population of elderly individuals with type 2 diabetes, there were marked differences in rates of dementia over a 10-year period by racial and ethnic groups," senior author Rachel Whitmer, PhD, research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, said at a press statement. "Moreover, the differences were not explained by diabetes-related complications, glycemic control or duration of diabetes. Nor were they altered by factors of age, gender, neighborhood deprivation index, body mass index, or hypertension."

The researchers also noticed that the older people above age 60 with type 2 diabetes were twice more likely to develop dementia.

"Since ethnic minorities are the fastest-growing segment of the elderly population in the United States, it is critical to determine if they are at higher risk of dementia, especially among those with type 2 diabetes," explained Elizabeth Rose Mayeda, PhD, lead author of the study, according to a news release. "It's eye-opening to see the magnitude of ethnic and racial differences in dementia risk in a study where everyone already has type 2 diabetes."

Researchers emphasize on the need for further studies to trace the factors that will lower the risk of dementia in patients suffering from diabetes, especially in the minority and ethnic groups that suffer from a elevated risk. This study is an ongoing part of work to gain a better insight into dementia.