TY - JOUR
T1 - Perspective on race and ethnicity in Alzheimer's disease research
AU - Weiner, Myron F.
N1 - Funding Information:
This perspective is offered by a clinician/researcher with 16 years of experience working in Oklahoma and Texas with American Indian dementia patients and their families. This work was made possible by funding from the National Institute on Aging of an American Indian Satellite awarded to the Alzheimer's Disease Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and by the cooperation of the Cherokee Nation, the Dallas Urban Intertribal Center, and the Choctaw Nation.
Funding Information:
Supported in part by research grant AG 12300 from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD.
PY - 2008/7
Y1 - 2008/7
N2 - There are adequate scientific, public health, and ethical justifications for studying Alzheimer's disease (AD) in persons of varying race and ethnicity, but to be meaningful variables, race and ethnicity must be examined in context. The complex interactions between race, ethnicity, lifestyle, and environmental factors, such as climate and diet, require that future studies of AD in specific racial or ethnic groups attend to measures of racial/ethnic homogeneity and the assessment of the environment and the elements that comprise the ethnicity of groups under study. Instead of arbitrarily selecting specific racial or ethnic groups in the hope of finding important differences, it may be in the long run less costly and more efficient to recruit families with highly positive (or negative) family histories, to search within these groups for possible racial or ethnic differences, and to investigate the possible racial or ethnic reasons for those differences.
AB - There are adequate scientific, public health, and ethical justifications for studying Alzheimer's disease (AD) in persons of varying race and ethnicity, but to be meaningful variables, race and ethnicity must be examined in context. The complex interactions between race, ethnicity, lifestyle, and environmental factors, such as climate and diet, require that future studies of AD in specific racial or ethnic groups attend to measures of racial/ethnic homogeneity and the assessment of the environment and the elements that comprise the ethnicity of groups under study. Instead of arbitrarily selecting specific racial or ethnic groups in the hope of finding important differences, it may be in the long run less costly and more efficient to recruit families with highly positive (or negative) family histories, to search within these groups for possible racial or ethnic differences, and to investigate the possible racial or ethnic reasons for those differences.
KW - Alzheimer's disease
KW - Ethnicity
KW - Race
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jalz.2007.10.016
DO - 10.1016/j.jalz.2007.10.016
M3 - Editorial
C2 - 18631972
AN - SCOPUS:45749145099
SN - 1552-5260
VL - 4
SP - 233
EP - 238
JO - Alzheimer's and Dementia
JF - Alzheimer's and Dementia
IS - 4
ER -