The process of receiving a dementia diagnosis can be long and difficult, but some people have an even harder time because they can’t access neurologists. The disparities are based on race and ethnicity, as well as geographical location, a report in Alzheimer’s & Dementia found.
The report, which was published Wednesday, looked at about 95,000 people in Washington state. Those living outside of the urban areas in the state, along with Native American and Hispanic people, have to travel further to visit neurologists.
Those disparities could cause delays in getting diagnosed, which can raise the cost of care, create a lower quality of life and prevent someone from slowing their cognitive decline, the authors noted.
The average distance to the nearest neurologist was 17 miles and the distance to the nearest primary care doctor was four miles, the data showed. Non-Hispanic American Indian and/or Alaska Native and Hispanic people had to travel 1.12 and 1.07 times farther, respectively, to get to the nearest neurologist compared to non-Hispanic white individuals. People who lived in rural areas would have had to travel 2.12 to 4.01 times farther to reach the nearest neurologist and 1.14 to 3.32 times farther to reach the nearest primary care physician than those in metropolitan areas, the data showed.
“We are facing an increasing demand for physicians who can meet the needs of people with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias as the number of people diagnosed is rising,” Solmaz Amiri, a researcher in the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine and the Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health (IREACH), said in a statement. “Given this added burden of access in rural and minoritized populations, we need to better understand the barriers people face in accessing care so we can help them achieve better dementia outcomes.”
“As dementia progresses, the need for people to access a physician increases. To these people, even 17 miles is a large distance that presents a significant burden, so you can imagine how hard it would be to have to travel 100 miles to see a neurologist,” Amiri added.
Cultural differences among racial groups may play a role in the disparities. Previous research found that Black people face large disparities in dementia diagnosis and outcomes. Some experts think they may be less apt to seek out care from a neurologist due to mistrust of healthcare settings that may be largely dominated by white people, Amiri said. Other factors could include the lack of the insurance or long wait times for appointments, Amiri added.
