Federal Efforts to Address Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

The National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) requires “the inclusion of ethnic and racial populations at higher risk for Alzheimer's or least likely to receive care, in clinical, research, and service efforts with the purpose of decreasing health disparities in Alzheimer's”.1 In order to meet this requirement, in 2020 the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services recommended that in order to advance health equity, work must be done to address racial and ethnic disparities in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). As a starting point, the Advisory Council tasked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a report on federal initiatives taken to address such disparities. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), which coordinates the implementation of NAPA, developed the following issue brief and inventory of federal efforts to address racial and ethnic disparities in dementia research, care, and services.