Blood Tests for Alzheimers Disease may Bear Racial Biases

Need for Unbiased Blood Test

“When you use a limited study population — as, unfortunately, scientists have traditionally done in Alzheimer’s research — and then try to apply the results to everyone, including people of diverse backgrounds, you could exacerbate health inequities. My hope is that this paper will help illustrate the need to increase the diversity of participants in Alzheimer’s studies. My colleagues and I are working to develop a much larger, multicenter study to better evaluate racial differences in Alzheimer’s-related blood biomarkers. This is a major priority for us,” says lead author Suzanne Schindler, MD, PhD, an associate professor of neurology.

Moreover, the study also had other limitations of increased rate of comorbidities like high blood pressure (67% ) and diabetes (28%) among Black participants when compared to lower rates (high blood pressure — 45% and diabetes —5%) among white participants.

“Rather than trying to adjust for race in some way, it would be better to use tests that perform equally well in all individuals. Alternatively, we can try to understand the underlying factors that create these apparent racial differences and adjust for those underlying factors rather than race. What we don’t want to do is to use these tests without evaluating their performance in diverse groups, because then we would fail in our duty to provide the best possible care to all,” says Schindler.

Source: Medindia