Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester.
Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland.
Gerontologist. 2019 Nov 16;59(6):1017-1023. doi: 10.1093/geront/gny104.
Cognitive impairment and dementia continue to threaten the aging population. Although no one is immune, certain groups, namely black older persons, are more likely to have a diagnosis of certain dementias. Because researchers have not found a purely biological reason for this disparity, they have turned to a biopsychosocial model. Specifically, black persons in the United States are more likely to live with social conditions that affect their stress levels which in turn affect physiological regulation leading to conditions that result in higher levels of cognitive impairment or dementia. Here we discuss some of these social conditions such as discrimination, education, and socioeconomic status, and how physiological dysregulation, namely allostatic load that can lead to cognitive impairment and dementia in black persons especially.
认知障碍和痴呆症继续威胁着老年人口。虽然没有人能幸免，但某些群体，即黑人老年人，更有可能被诊断出患有某些类型的痴呆症。由于研究人员尚未找到造成这种差异的纯粹生物学原因，因此他们转向了生物心理社会模式。具体来说，美国的黑人更有可能生活在影响他们压力水平的社会环境中，而压力水平反过来又会影响生理调节，从而导致认知障碍或痴呆症的发生风险增加。在这里，我们将讨论其中的一些社会条件，例如歧视、教育和社会经济地位，以及生理失调（即身体的应激适应储备）如何导致黑人的认知障碍和痴呆症。
