Race and Ethnicity and Comorbidities Among Medicare Beneficiaries With Young-Onset Dementia

What is the prevalence of young-onset dementia (YOD) and its associations with comorbidities among Medicare beneficiaries aged 45 to 64 years across racial and ethnic groups?In this cross-sectional study of 2 189 231 Medicare beneficiaries aged 45 to 64 years, 3.25% had YOD, with the highest prevalence among Black adults. YOD made up a significantly larger proportion of Alzheimer disease and related dementias among Black, Hispanic, and American Indian and Alaska Native adults aged 45 years and older compared with White and Asian populations and was associated with many comorbidities.These findings suggest that improved early detection may help address the needs of Medicare beneficiaries with YOD, especially those from minoritized racial and ethnic groups with multiple comorbidities.

Corresponding Author: Luohua Jiang, PhD, Department of Epidemiology lhjiang@hs.uci.edu).

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