Andrea Ault-Brutus, a board member of the Long Island chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, said the study underlines the impact Alzheimer’s has on Long Island seniors and their caregivers and the need for additional funding.Credit: Danielle Silverman
ByDavid Olsondavid.olson@newsday.com@DavidOlson11July 22, 2023
An estimated 1 in 8 Long Island seniors has Alzheimer’s disease, and Nassau County’s rate is in the top 15% of counties nationwide, a recently released study found The studyis the first to estimate how many people in each U.S county have Alzheimer’s, according to the Chicago-based Alzheimer’s Association, whose journal, Alzheimer’s & Dementia, published the findings on July 17 About 31,300 seniors in Nassau and 30,500 in Suffolk have the disease, researchers estimated
New York had the second-highest Alzheimer’s rate among states, an estimated 12.7% of residents 65 and older, the study found Nassau’s rate was 12.5% and Suffolk’s 11.7%, proportions higher than more than 70% of counties nationwide, a Newsday analysis of the study’s data found A 2021studythat used similar methods estimated the nationwide rate at 11.3% WHAT TO KNOWAbout 1 in 8 Long Island seniors— 12.5% in Nassau and 11.7% in Suffolk — has Alzheimer’s disease, according to a recently released study that estimated rates in every U.S
county.The two counties’ rates are higherthan those in more than 70% of counties nationwide, an analysis of the study’s data found New York has the second-highest rate — 12.7% — of all states.Experts said the study helps governmentofficials better understand where resources should be allocated More funding for services for the estimated 61,800 Long Islanders with Alzheimer’s, and their caregivers, is needed, representatives of local nonprofits said Tori Cohen, executive director of the Westbury-based Long Island Alzheimer’s & Dementia Center, which provides services to people with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, and to their caregivers, isn’t surprised by the high numbers
Get the latest stories every week about health and wellness, covering topics from medicine and mental health to updates on the coronavirus and new research By clicking Sign up, you agree to ourprivacy policy “Our phones haven’t stopped ringing,” she said “There’s such a need for services.”
To calculate the county estimates, researchers at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center used cognitive and demographic data from a health study of more than 10,800 Chicago seniors and applied that data to counties
Rates are based on the racial, ethnic, age and gender makeup of each county’s seniors, because Black and Latino seniors have significantly higher rates of Alzheimer’s than whites, women have higher rates than men, and the risk of Alzheimer’s dramatically increases with age, according to a separate Alzheimer’s Associationreportreleased in March Tori Cohen, executive director of the Long Island Alzheimer’s & Dementia Center, said “there’s such a need for services.”Credit: John Roca
One reason for the high Long Island Alzheimer’s prevalence is that the Island’s seniors tend to be older than in other counties In Nassau, 15% of seniors are 85 or older, a proportion higher than in nearly 90% of all U.S counties, according to the Newsday analysis
About 1 in 3 seniors 85 and older has Alzheimer’s, compared with 5% of those 65 to 74, according to the 2021 study Source: NewsDay.com
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Source: Newsday_Com
