The Lasting Impact of Structural Racism and Racial Violence on Cognitive Health in Later Life

Team members: Alicia R. Riley and Lorena Rosales

There are large racial inequities in Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (ADRD) in the United States, but their basis is poorly understood. Most studies of racial inequities in ADRD examine their association with contemporaneous exposures using cross-sectional study designs. Even the studies that are longitudinal are limited by recency of data available on cognitive outcomes. Especially because processes of age-associated cognitive decline are thought to begin in mid-life or later, the evidence-base for what drives racial disparities in ADRD tends to focus on more proximate exposures, such as health behaviors in adulthood, rather than employing a lifecourse perspective that recognizes the possibility that exposures in early life, especially traumatic ones, have a lasting impact on cognitive health. These limitations in data and evidence can result in misguided explanations about the nature of racial inequities in ADRD such that they shift the focus away from structural racism and toward individual behaviors. This project uses a longitudinal study design, novel data linkages, innovative measurement of structural racism, and rigorous causal inference methods to generate some of the first estimates of the potential for exposure to structural racism and racial violence in childhood to have lasting influence on cognitive health in later life.

Supported by a Early Initiatives Seed Grant from the UCSC Offie of Research