October 1, 2024
IMPACT member, Nicholas Pajewski, PhD, among research team exploring the socioeconomic and medical determinants of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) at a population level in the United States. The principle study aim was to clarify the association between state-level socioeconomic and medical determinants and state-level prevalence estimates of SCD and SCD-related functional impairment.
The research team conducted the ecological study using the CDC dataset “Alzheimer’s Disease and Healthy Aging Data,” which contains state-level Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys from 2016-2021. Findings reflect regional variation in outcomes, with the Southern United States showing the highest prevalence of both SCD and SCD-related functional impairment. The findings reinforce the importance of a broader perspective in addressing cognitive impairment in the United States, highlighting the critical importance of socioeconomic factors, particularly poverty.
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