Pathways to Racial/Ethnic Inequalities in Dementia.

Individuals from minoritized racial/ethnic groups face a disproportionate burden of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. This health inequality reflects structural racism, which creates and sustains racial differences in social determinants of health, including education access and quality, economic stability, social and community context, neighborhood and built environment, and health care access and quality. Thus, understanding pathways that lead to dementia inequalities requires addressing individual- and system-level factors.

Marital status, brain health, and cognitive reserve among diverse older adults.

Objective: Being married may protect late-life cognition. Less is known about living arrangement among unmarried adults and mechanisms such as brain health (BH) and cognitive reserve (CR) across race and ethnicity or sex/gender. The current study examines (1) associations between marital status, BH, and CR among diverse older adults and (2) whether one's living arrangement is linked to BH and CR among unmarried adults.

Interpersonal, Community, and Societal Stressors Mediate Black-White Memory Disparities.

Objectives: Structural racism creates contextual stressors that disproportionately affect Black, relative to White, older adults in the United States and may contribute to worse cognitive health. We examined the extent to which interpersonal, community, and societal stressors uniquely explain Black-White disparities in initial memory and memory change.

Methods: The sample included 14,199 non-Latino Black and White older adults (Mage = 68.

Neighborhood racial income inequality and cognitive health.

Introduction: Neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) has been linked to dementia, but the distribution of SES within a neighborhood may also matter.

Methods: Data from 460 (47% Black, 46% White) older adults from the Michigan Cognitive Aging Project were linked to census tract-level data from the National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA). Neighborhood SES included two composites reflecting disadvantage and affluence.

Histories of neighborhood socioeconomic status contribute to race differences in later-life cognition.

Introduction: Neighborhood characteristics are increasingly implicated in cognitive health disparities, but no research has investigated how the historical context of neighborhoods shapes these disparities.

Methods: Four hundred sixty-four Black (55%) and White older adults (M= 63.6) were drawn from the Michigan Cognitive Aging Project, a community-based, prospective study of older adults.

Preclinical Dementia and Economic Well-Being Trajectories of Racially Diverse Older Adults.

ObjectivesThis study examined the magnitude, changes, and racial/ethnic disparities in the economic costs of the 16-year preclinical phase of dementia-a period of cognitive decline without significant impact on daily activities. The study utilized two dementia algorithms to classify individuals with incident dementia in the Health and Retirement Study. These cases were compared to matched controls in terms of poverty status, labor force participation, and unsecured debts.

Mechanisms underlying the association between adverse childhood experiences and racial disparities in later-life cognition.

Objective: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may be a risk factor for later-life cognitive disorders such as dementia; however, few studies have investigated underlying mechanisms, such as cardiovascular health and depressive symptoms, in a health disparities framework.

Method: 418 community-dwelling adults (50% nonHispanic Black, 50% nonHispanic White) aged 55+ from the Michigan Cognitive Aging Project retrospectively reported on nine ACEs. Baseline global cognition was a z-score composite of five factor scores from a comprehensive neuropsychological battery.

Racial and ethnic differences in the relationship between financial worry and white matter hyperintensities in Latinx, non-Latinx Black, and non-Latinx White older adults.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) and contributes to racial and ethnic health disparities. However, traditional measures of SES may not accurately represent individual financial circumstances among non-Latinx Black and Latinx older adults due to longstanding structural inequities. This study examined associations between multiple SES indicators (education, income, subjective financial worry) and WMHs across non-Latinx Black, Latinx, and non-Latinx White older adults in the Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project (N = 662).

Coping Styles and Cognitive Function in Older Non-Hispanic Black and White Adults.

Objectives: Coping styles refer to cognitive and behavioral patterns used to manage the demands of stressors, and effective coping represents a psychological resource. Some studies have linked coping styles to executive functioning, but less is known about coping styles and their associations with cognition across social groups known to differ in stress exposure and dementia risk. This study aimed to characterize associations between coping styles and cognitive functioning across non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White older adults.

Links between early-life contextual factors and later-life cognition and the role of educational attainment.

Objective: Educational attainment is a well-documented predictor of later-life cognition, but less is known about upstream contextual factors. This study aimed to identify which early-life contextual factors uniquely predict later-life global cognition and whether educational attainment mediates these relationships.

Method: Participants were drawn from the Michigan Cognitive Aging Project ( = 485; = 63.

Effects of Stress Exposure Versus Appraisal on Episodic Memory Trajectories: Evidence for Risk and Resilience Among Black Older Adults.

Objectives: Chronic stressors, experienced disproportionately by Black older adults, are a risk factor for memory impairment. Racially patterned stress exposure may contribute to higher rates of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) among Black older adults compared with Whites, but less is known about the role of stress appraisal. This study examined whether chronic stress exposure mediates racial disparities in memory and whether stress appraisal moderates these associations.

Depressive Symptoms, Leisure Activity Engagement, and Global Cognition in Non-Hispanic Black and White Older Adults.

Objectives: Prior research indicates that depressive symptoms disproportionately affect cognition in non-Hispanic Blacks relative to non-Hispanic Whites. Depressive symptoms have been linked to worse global cognition in older adulthood through lower leisure activity engagement, but less is known regarding the distinct types of activities that drive these associations and whether associations involving depressive symptoms, leisure activities, and cognition differ across racial groups.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from the Michigan Cognitive Aging Project (n = 453, 52.