Minorities more worried about Alzheimer's

WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J., May 4 (UPI) -- African-Americans and Hispanics are more concerned about Alzheimer's disease, but are less informed about prevention than Caucasians, a U.S. survey indicates.

The survey conducted for Eisai, Inc., a U.S. pharmaceutical subsidiary of Eisai Co. of Tokyo, and The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation says African-Americans expressed higher levels of concern about Alzheimer's disease than their Caucasian counterparts. About half of African-Americans knew that people can take action to delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

"African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to develop Alzheimer's," Dr. Sharon Richardson of Eisai Inc. says in a statement.

"In addition, they have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease -- all of which increase the risk of Alzheimer's."

Richardson presented the findings at the Congressional Black Caucus's Spring Health Braintrust and National Minority Quality Forum leadership summit in Washington.

The national telephone survey, conducted by Dutko Research and Polling, surveyed 601 African-American adults and 602 Hispanic adults in the United States from March 26-April 7. The margin of error is plus/minus 4 percentage points.