Affiliations: [a]
Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| [b]
Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| [c]
Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| [d]
Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| [e]
Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Ambar Kulshreshtha, MD, PhD, Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology, Emory Rollins School of Public Health, 4500 North Shallowford Rd., Suite 134, Atlanta, GA 30338, USA. Tel.: +1 404 778 6919; Fax: +1 404 778 6901; E-mail: akulshr@emory.edu.
Abstract: This study investigated Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mortality trends by urbanization level and geographical location in the U.S. The CDC’s WONDER database was used to investigate AD mortality from 1999–2019 stratified by urbanization level, census division, race, and sex. Data showed that while AD mortality increased across the U.S., rural areas, particularly in the South, had higher mortality compared to urban counterparts. AD mortality was higher among the female and White population. Data suggested that the urban-rural discrepancy is widening over time. Identifying health disparities underlying the urban-rural discrepancy in AD mortality is critical for allocating social and public health resources.
