Cognitive health disparities and COVID‐19 stress: Evidence from metro‐Detroit

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundRacial/ethnic minority groups and those with lower socioeconomic status suffer greater prevalence of cognitive health problems. For example, older Black Americans are about twice as likely to develop ADRD as older Whites (Lennon et al., 2022). Rates of ADRD are unknown among Middle Eastern/Arab Americans (MENA). Throughout the COVID‐19 pandemic, racial/ethnic disparities existed such that COVID‐19 prevalence and mortality were greater among Black and MENA populations compared to Whites (Dallo et al., 2022). This paper characterizes COVID‐19 stress prevalence and cognitive health in metro‐Detroit among three racial‐ethnic groups.MethodIn the recently completed U.S.‐based Detroit Area Wellness Network – COVID‐19 Supplement (DAWN‐CS) project (N = 606), participants were recruited from an existing longitudinal cohort study (i.e., Social Relations Study; Antonucci & Akiyama, 1994), supplemented by address‐based and respondent‐driven sampling in order to obtain a racially/ethnically balanced sample of MENA, Black, and White older adults. Eligible persons (aged 65+) within screened households were selected with probability to allow appropriate inference to the target population. Inclusion criteria for DAWN‐CS were: age 65+, fluency in English or Arabic, and identifying as MENA, Black, or White. Psychosocial questionnaires and cognitive measures were administered via telephone. Global cognition was a composite score of episodic memory, language, attention, and working memory tests.ResultMENA older adults reported more COVID‐19 stress and demonstrated lower cognitive health than White older adults, aligning more with profiles observed among Black older adults. The influence of COVID‐19 stress did not vary by race‐ethnicity or predict cognitive health in the whole sample. COVID‐19 stress predicted better cognitive health only for Whites.ConclusionIncluding underrepresented populations in the study of stress and cognitive health advances science and addresses societal health in its entirety. Disaggregating MENA from Whites demonstrates an unrecognized disparity (MENA versus White older adults), and improves estimates of other disparities (Black versus White older adults). The benefit of stress on cognitive health for Whites reflect that stress may have health benefits when experienced in small doses.