Alzheimer’s disease: A silent epidemic in Westchester County we must tackle
As a Mount Vernon native and a volunteer for the Alzheimer’s Association over the past several years, I have had many conversations with fellow Westchester residents about Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. In my interactions, I have scarcely encountered someone without a connection to the disease — typically a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle now living with Alzheimer’s or one who has died from it. This is perhaps unsurprising, as 6.7 million Americans currently live with Alzheimer’s disease throughout the United States. However, we have not had enough data to confirm what the anecdotal data suggests — that Alzheimer’s presents a significant and disproportionate burden on Westchester County residents. That is, until now.
Last month at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, researchers released the first-ever county-level prevalence estimates for Alzheimer’s dementia in people 65 years of age and older. The data showed that New York has the second-highest Alzheimer’s prevalence among all 50 states, behind only Maryland. Within New York state, Westchester County has one of the highest rates of residents living with Alzheimer’s, rounding out the top five counties behind four of the five boroughs of New York City. Our neighbors to the south in the Bronx live in one of the three counties with the highest proportion of residents with Alzheimer’s in the United States (16.6%), along with Miami-Dade and Baltimore City.
The researchers behind the study have hypothesized that a specific combination of demographic characteristics may explain the higher prevalence in counties like Westchester, including older average age and higher percentages of Black and Hispanic residents. Age is well-established as a primary risk factor for Alzheimer’s and according to Alzheimer’s Association 2023 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts & Figures, older Black Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer's or other dementias as older white Americans, and older Hispanics are about one and one-half times as likely to have Alzheimer's or other dementias as their white peers.
We have just learned that Westchester is the county with the fifth highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease in the state with the second highest prevalence of the disease in the country. As Westchester residents, what should we do in response? First and foremost, we must ensure that the people in our community affected by Alzheimer’s and their families – our relatives, friends and neighbors – are aware of and can access resources, such as those provided by the Alzheimer’s Association Hudson Valley Chapter. We must also urge our elected officials, including my own member of Congress, Jamaal Bowman, to act and fully fund Alzheimer’s research, prevention, treatment, and care, including an additional $321 million in National Institutes of Health research funding and $35 million in funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act. Looking ahead to the future, we must ensure the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease is extended through 2035.
The burden of Alzheimer’s on individuals and families is projected to grow, with prevalence expected to double and total payments for health care costs breaking $1 trillion by 2050. Despite these grim forecasts, with more than 140 drugs currently in the research and development pipeline, we are on the precipice of a transformation of Alzheimer’s from a heartbreaking diagnosis to a treatable condition. Given the disease’s disproportionate impact on Westchester families, it is imperative that we continue the fight against it until we find a cure.
Maura Reilly is an Alzheimer’s Impact Movement Ambassador for the 16th Congressional District and the Community Engagement Chair for the Westchester Walk to End Alzheimer’s.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Alzheimer’s disease: A silent epidemic in Westchester County
