Lifecourse pathways to racial disparities in cognitive impairment among elderly Americans

Cognitive impairment and dementia are major health problems confronting older persons. Blacks are especially hard hit by cognitive impairment and dementia in the U.S. It is estimated that among those aged 71 years and older Blacks were approximately two times more likely to have dementia than Whites. Despite developments in understanding the risk factors associated with cognitive impairment and dementia in recent years, very few population-level studies have investigated the origins and mechanisms through which the racial gap in cognitive impairment is produced. In this study, using data from 7 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2010), we analyzed how racial differences in cognitive impairment are tied to the racial stratification of childhood resources and health, adult socioeconomic status, health, and health behaviors among 9044 non-Hispanic Whites and Blacks aged 65 and older in 1998. Our preliminary results showed that older Blacks were about three times more likely to suffer from cognitive impairment than Whites in 1998, and childhood conditions including childhood health, parental education, and father's occupation as well as adult socioeconomic achievement played an important role in accounting for racial disparities in cognitive impairment in later life.