Poverty and long-standing racial inequities shape who carries the highest burden of modifiable dementia risk factors in the United States, according to a new study. The research, involving more than 5,000 adults, shows that people with lower incomes and those from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups face markedly higher exposure to conditions that can raise the likelihood of dementia later in life.
Study author Eric L. Stulberg, MD, MPH, notes that people living below the poverty line “may bear a higher burden of many modifiable dementia risk factors.” Those factors include untreated hearing and vision loss, diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, depression, and social isolation. The data show that with every step higher up the income ladder, participants were 9% less likely to have an additional midlife risk factor.
For people in the lowest income group, two issues stood out: vision loss and social isolation. Researchers estimate that 21% of dementia cases in this group might be mitigated by addressing vision loss, and another 20% by reducing isolation.
Even after accounting for income, racial and ethnic disparities remained. Black Americans, Mexican Americans, and non-Mexican Hispanic Americans face higher rates of diabetes, physical inactivity, obesity, and vision loss compared with white Americans.
See: “Income and social disparities found to influence dementia risk factors” (Nov. 12, 2025)
