First Dementia Prevalence Data in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Older Adults

The first dementia prevalence data from a large population of lesbian, gay, and bisexual older adults was disclosed at the 2018 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Chicago, reports EurekAlert . The investigators analyzed the prevalence of dementia among 3,718 sexual minority adults older than 60 who participated in the Kaiser Permanente Research Program on Genes, Environment, and Health, with dementia diagnoses gathered from medical records. During the nine-year follow-up, the crude prevalence of dementia was 7.4 percent for sexual minority older adults in the cohort. For comparison, Alzheimer's Association 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures estimated U.S. prevalence of Alzheimer's disease dementia and other dementias for people older than 65 at about 10 percent. The researchers noted significant rates of depression, hypertension, stroke, and cardiovascular disease in the study population may play roles in the level of dementia. "Current estimates suggest that more than 200,000 sexual minorities in the U.S. are living with dementia, but — before our study — almost nothing was known about the prevalence of dementia among people in this group who do not have HIV/AIDS-related dementia," says University of California, San Francisco Professor Jason Flatt. "Though our new findings provide important initial insights, future studies aimed at better understanding risk and risk factors for Alzheimer's and other dementias in older sexual minorities are greatly needed."