Women are disproportionately more likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s than men, which has long been attributed to living longer and genetic differences.
But now, a new study from Columbia University Irving Medical Center has blamed a new cause: sexism.
The researcher, who reviewed data from more than 21,000 people, said inequality in access to resources and power was causing harmful changes in women’s brains that lead to dementia.
They found that women in the “most sexist” states in the United States had nine years more cognitive decline compared to their peers in the least sexist states in the country.
Dr Justina Ávila-Rieger, an associate scientist who led the study, said: “Our findings suggest that addressing social inequalities may be a powerful way to reduce the burden of Alzheimer’s among women.”
‘What we… know is that structural inequalities shape individual health outcomes by creating barriers to opportunities and resources that improve health.
“Over time, these exposures produce disparities in chronic physical health conditions that directly influence brain health, the onset of cognitive decline, and ultimately dementia.”
About 6.2 million Americans have Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, nearly two-thirds of whom are women.
CDC estimates also show that women live five years longer than men on average, up to 80.2 years compared to 74.8 years for men.
In the study, scientists calculated a “structural sexism” score for each state by comparing the proportions of men and women in the labor force and maternal mortality, among other factors, for the years 1910 to 1960.
This was then compared to estimates of dementia rates among women in each state who were born in the 1920s and 1930s.
The researchers sought to obtain a snapshot of cultural attitudes at the time when these women were growing up and may have suffered the brain damage that precedes dementia.
Results: published in the magazine. Alzheimer’s and dementia – showed that women in more sexist states were significantly more likely to develop dementia than those in less sexist states.
Overall, they said the most sexist state in the 1960s was Mississippi, while the least sexist was Connecticut.
The researchers did not suggest a biological mechanism to explain the difference.
But they hypothesized that differences in exposures early in life due to structural sexism, such as less access to the workplace, may be behind the differences.
Dr Ávila-Reiger said: “It is possible that early life exposure is a critical period for structural inequality, with direct or indirect consequences that accumulate over time.
‘We also need to distinguish which aspects of structural sexism have the greatest impact on cognitive health. This is important in terms of making recommendations to policy makers.’
Dementia is a general term for a group of neurological conditions that cause a decline in brain function, of which Alzheimer’s is the most common (stock)
Dementia is a general term for a group of neurological conditions that cause a decline in brain function, of which Alzheimer’s is the most common.
While the total number of dementia cases is expected to increase in the future, the diagnosis rate for people of both sexes is expected to decrease.
Researchers have suggested that this change may be due to more health-conscious lifestyles, including wearable devices that encourage people to exercise and watch their diet.
Writing in 2022, Harvard researchers argued that age was “the biggest risk factor” for Alzheimer’s disease.
But they added that there were other factors at play, noting that rates of non-Alzheimer’s dementia were the same between men and women.
The researchers suggested this could be related to women having stronger immune systems, which they said could increase the risk of amyloid beta protein plaques forming in the brain, which have been linked to causing diabetes. disease.