- Older Black Americans are twice as likely as whites to have Alzheimer’s or dementia.
- More than 21% of Black Americans 70 and older have Alzheimer’s or dementia.
- Jerome Childers of Akron is working to raise awareness in the Black community.
Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are devastating maladies with no known cure. For Black Americans, their prevalence is particularly insidious.
Disparities in health care access, distrust of the medical system, substance abuse and inadequate nutrition are all factors for why Blacks are more likely to be impacted by dementia than any other ethnic group.
Older Black Americans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia than whites. An estimated 21.3% of Black Americans over 70 have some form of the disease.
Katie Kirby, director of communications with the Alzheimer’s Association in Ohio and West Virginia, said her agency is emphasizing awareness in the Black community as June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month.
Jerome Childers of Akron is an Alzheimer’s Association volunteer. In addition to losing his grandmother to the disease, he lost an uncle to Lewy Body dementia, the same disease that afflicted the late comedian Robin Williams.