Racial differences seen in Alzheimer's survival

Racial differences seen in Alzheimer's survival
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Latinos and blacks live longerafter being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease than whites evenas autopsies show that the severity of the disease is similaramong them, researchers said on Wednesday.
Latinos lived approximately 40 percent longer than whitesafter diagnosis with the disease, and blacks lived about 15percent longer than whites, the researchers reported in thejournal Neurology.
The researchers tracked 30,916 people ages 65 and olderwith Alzheimer's disease from across the United States.
"The explanations may be complex. It's not entirely clearwhy Latinos and African Americans have a survival advantage,"Kala Mehta of the University of California, San Francisco, oneof the researchers, said in a telephone interview.
Mehta said factors could include cultural issues likesupport from extended family. Differing levels of health andillness beyond Alzheimer's also might be a factor, Mehta said.
Alzheimer's is a degenerative brain disease that is themost common form of dementia among the elderly.
Of the people in the study, 81 percent were white, 12percent black and 4 percent Latino, the researchers said.
On average, the people in the study lived for 4.8 yearsafter diagnosis. Autopsies were conducted on 3,000 patients,showing that the severity of the disease was similar among thevarious groups.
"These findings were not explained by patient age, sex,educational level, marital status, living situation, andcognitive test score measured at their first evaluation" forthe disease, the researchers wrote.
"Determining the underlying factors behind survivaldifferences may lead to longer survival for (Alzheimer'sdisease) patients of all race/ethnic backgrounds," theresearchers wrote.
(Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Beech)