The Numbers
Approximately two-thirds of Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease are women. This disparity reflects both longevity differences — women live longer, and age is the primary risk factor for Alzheimer’s — and potential biological differences in disease susceptibility and progression that research is only beginning to characterize.
The brain health of women across the lifespan is a research area where decades of underinvestment are now producing significant gaps in clinical understanding. The menopause transition, which involves significant neurological changes including alterations in sleep, mood, and cognition, is emerging as a potentially meaningful window for Alzheimer’s risk — and for intervention. The evidence base for this is growing but is still inadequate to inform clinical practice.
The Research Gap
Sex as a biological variable in Alzheimer’s research has been inconsistently applied. Clinical trials have enrolled women in insufficient numbers to power sex-specific analyses. The biological mechanisms that might explain women’s higher Alzheimer’s risk — hormonal, genetic, inflammatory — have been underinvestigated relative to the scale of the disease.
The proposed elimination of NIMHD in the FY2027 budget would have specific implications for Alzheimer’s equity research: Black and Hispanic women face higher rates of Alzheimer’s and have substantially less access to diagnosis and treatment. Research that does not include these populations is research that cannot generate the evidence needed to serve them.
What We Track
We monitor NIH Alzheimer’s research funding and sex-disaggregated research requirements, the National Alzheimer’s Plan Update and its women’s health implications, FDA approvals for Alzheimer’s treatments with sex-specific data, and federal support for dementia caregiver support (where women are disproportionately represented).
