The Racial Disparities Behind Alzheimer’s Disease

There will be two elements to this Thesis, the first will be a discussion of the social and cultural issues surrounding racial disparities in Alzheimer’s diagnoses with a focus on African American populations. I will contextualize the discussion by presenting statistical evidence of the existence of racial differences and their extent. I will briefly explain the extent to which genetics play a role and how genetic influence differs across racial groups, as well as address rebuttal arguments. A brief discussion of how biases in healthcare systems affect the quality of care and whether patients get timely diagnoses. Social issues will include an extensive discussion of Stigmas. The discussion of stigmas will talk about public perception, inherent biases in screening which may strengthen negative stigmas of healthcare, poor communication from physicians, how the content of stigmas differs across racial groups, and the extent of racial differences in beliefs, concerns, and faith in prevention/treatment options. The second part of the thesis will be an Oil Painting of an individual with Alzheimer’s. I hope to capture the character of a patient with Alzheimer’s with elements of as much as I can learn about their life story embedded in the painting. Alzheimer’s is a disease that slowly takes away memory of life experiences, and I want to attempt to document the current state of being that the patient is in as well as emphasizing aspects of their life story