Epidemiology of Age-related Dementia, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Brain Pathology in a Multiethnic Cohort of Oldest-Old

Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias affect 15 percent of those aged 65 and up; by age 90 and up, this number increases to a startling 40 to 50 percent. The oldest-old, people aged 90 and -older, are the fastest-growing segment of the elderly population in the U.S., currently comprising 4.7 percent and expected to increase to almost 10 percent of the elderly population by 2050. Yet there is an enormous dearth of information on mild cognitive impairment and age-associated dementias in the oldest-old, particularly in non-whites and those from lower socioeconomic classes. The overall objectives of this project are to determine if in the oldest-old there are ethnoracial differences in the incidence of mild cognitive impairment and dementia, to quantify mid- and late-life risk and protective factors for these conditions, and to understand the burden of cerebral and brain pathologies in this population.

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