ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1584127
Regional differences in the incidence of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias in
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of South Carolina, Columbia, United States
- 2Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
There is an increase in the population of older adults, 65 years or older in South Carolina. Socio economic and environmental factors are linked to the diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias (ADRD). The aim of this study was therefore, to characterize the incidence of ADRD by public health regions (PHR).We estimated the incidence of ADRD for 2021using data from South Carolina Alzheimer's Disease Registry (SCADR) and the Annual County Resident Population Estimates (ACRPE). The incidence of new cases per 100, 0000 population for each county, and PHR, and age-adjusted ADRD specific diagnosis were estimated. Poisson regression modeling was used to compare crude and ADRD specific incidence by PHRs. The incidence of ADRD by counties and PHRs was visualized using TIGERline files.Results: A total of 18,955 registrants from the SCADR were included in this study. About 38% of the participants were between 75-84 years. Additionally, about 79% of the registrants had Alzheimer's (AD) diagnosis. The crude incidence of ADRD was higher in the Pee Dee PHR (896 per 100,000). Among ADRD specific diagnosis, AD incidence was higher in the Pee Dee PHR (727 per 100,000), Vascular dementia (VaD) and Mixed dementia incidences were higher in the Upstate PHR. The crude incidence of ADRD differed significantly across all the PHRs (p<0.05). Discussion: Regional differences in the incidence of ADRD suggest possible disparities in healthcare access, socioeconomic conditions and geographical factors. Targeted interventions, and early screening among young populations should be prioritized.
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, Dementia, Incidence, Public Health Regions, South Carolina
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 21 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Amoatika, Miller, Adams and Milano. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Daniel A Amoatika, University of South Carolina, Columbia, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.