Black adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) shoulder a far heavier burden of chronic disease than their White peers, widening racial health gaps as cognition starts to slip. A new analysis of 8,737 adults from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center found that Black Americans with MCI are disproportionately affected by hypertension, diabetes, and multimorbidity—multiple chronic conditions that may accelerate cognitive decline.
Researchers examined adults 55 and older with normal cognition, amnestic MCI, or nonamnestic MCI and evaluated common cardiovascular comorbidities by race. Across all diagnostic groups, Black participants had lower education levels, higher body mass index, and were more likely to carry one, two, or three comorbidities than White participants, regardless of diagnosis.
In the normal cognition group, Black adults had markedly higher risks of hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia than White adults. Among those with amnestic MCI, Black individuals remained at substantially higher risk for hypertension and diabetes, and in nonamnestic MCI the excess risk climbed even higher.
The study reports that comorbidity rates were higher in both MCI groups than in cognitively normal adults, and that cardiovascular risk factors clustered with older age, male sex, higher BMI, and fewer years of education. The authors write that the findings “underscore racial disparities in multimorbidity,” with Black Americans disproportionately affected by hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and multimorbidity in ways that may contribute to increased risk of MCI-related cognitive decline.
They conclude that addressing racial health disparities, promoting cardiovascular health, and improving education and health care access are “vital steps” to reducing cognitive impairment and dementia in aging populations.
See: “Black Patients at Higher Risk for Multimorbidity in Mild Cognitive Impairment” (December 4, 2025)
