- Llibre-Guerra, Jorge;
- Li, Jing;
- Qian, Yuting;
- Llibre-Rodriguez, Juan;
- Jiménez-Velázquez, Ivonne;
- Acosta, Daisy;
- Salas, Aquiles;
- Llibre-Guerra, Juan;
- Valvuerdi, Adolfo;
- Harrati, Amal;
- Weiss, Jordan;
- Liu, Mao-Mei;
- Dow, William
INTRODUCTION: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) is considered the major susceptibility gene for developing Alzheimers disease. However, the strength of this risk factor is not well established across diverse Hispanic populations. METHODS: We investigated the associations among APOE genotype, dementia prevalence, and memory performance (immediate and delayed recall scores) in Caribbean Hispanics (CH), African Americans (AA), Hispanic Americans (HA) and non-Hispanic White Americans (NHW). Multivariable logistic regressions and negative binomial regressions were used to examine these associations by subsample. RESULTS: Our final dataset included 13,516 participants (5198 men, 8318 women) across all subsamples, with a mean age of 74.8 years. Prevalence of APOE ε4 allele was similar in CHs, HAs, and NHWs (21.8%-25.4%), but was substantially higher in AAs (33.6%; P < 0.001). APOE ε4 carriers had higher dementia prevalence across all groups. DISCUSSION: APOE ε4 was similarly associated with increased relative risk of dementia and lower memory performance in all subsamples.