Racial/ethnic differences in neuropsychological test performance in frontotemporal degeneration

BACKGROUND Racial and/or ethnic differences in neuropsychological test performance are understudied in frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) but their identification is critical to identifying ways to improve care of representative FTD populations. METHODS Differences in cognitive scores between Black ( n = 56) and Hispanic ( n = 76) relative to White ( n = 2281) participants and the likelihood of impairment status in cognitive test performance were evaluated. RESULTS Minoritized individuals had lower scores and/or greater likelihood of impairment on measures of lexical retrieval, processing speed, cognitive flexibility, and working memory but not global cognition, verbal recall, attention, and category fluency. Addition of severity, age ( M = 65.18), sex (40% female), education ( M = 15.62), and vascular comorbidities attenuated group differences. DISCUSSION Racial/ethnic differences on neuropsychological tests used in diagnosis and monitoring of FTD were substantially attenuated when accounting for potential contributing factors. To address these differences in FTD, future efforts must increase representative research participation of patients and understand social determinants of health. Highlights Racially/ethnically minoritized individuals with frontotemporal dementia are severely underrepresented in the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center dataset Racially/ethnically minoritized individuals with frontotemporal dementia obtained lower scores and greater likelihood of impairment on common neuropsychological tests The effect of racial/ethnic group on neuropsychological test scores was substantially attenuated when adjusting for disease severity, education level, sex, and age