Racial Discrimination Impacts Cognition in African American Women

Racial discrimination is linked with lower subjective cognitive function (SCF) among African American women, according to a recent study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring.

To conduct this study, researchers assessed 59,000 black women using data obtained from the Black Women’s Health Study. Subsequently, they quantified the link between racism and SCF based on six questions about memory and cognition

According to the results, both daily and institutional racism were correlated with decreased SCF. Women reporting the highest level of daily racism had 2.75 times the risk of poor SCF as women reporting the lowest level of daily racism, the researchers noted. They observed that Women in the highest category of institutional racism had 2.66 times the risk of poor SCF as those who reported no such experiences.

Racial discrimination may adversely impact cognition in African Americans https://t.co/ptj1urUhrF

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“Our findings of a positive association of experiences of racism with poorer subjective cognitive function are consistent with previous work demonstrating that higher perceived psychological stress is associated with greater subjective memory decline,” explains senior author Lynn Rosenberg, ScD, epidemiologist at the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University and a principal investigator of the Black Women’s Health Study via a press release.

“Our work suggests that the chronic stress associated with racial discrimination may contribute to racial disparities in cognition and AD,” added Rosenberg, who is also a professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health.

Racial discrimination may adversely impact cognition in African Americans https://t.co/QV6LnpO637 via @instapaper

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