Utilizing Electronic Medical Records Identifies Similarities and Differences in Alzheimer’s Disease Comorbidities Between Racialized Populations

Abstract Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) is a currently incurable neurodegenerative disease that is disproportionately prevalent in racially marginalized populations. However, due to underrepresentation in AD research, the full spectrum of AD-associated comorbidities that increase AD risk or suggest potential AD treatment disparities in these populations is not completely understood. Here, we perform low-dimensional embedding, enrichment analysis, and disease network-based analyses of 5,664 patients with AD and demographically matched controls across two electronic medical record (EMR) systems and five medical centers, with equal representation of Asian-, Non-Hispanic Black-, Latine-, and Non-Hispanic White-identified individuals. Our results suggest that while AD-associated comorbidities may be generally similar across racialized populations, some comorbidities may be enriched in subsets of racialized populations. Our approach could be a starting point for hypothesis-driven studies that can further explore the relationship between these comorbidities and AD in racialized populations, potentially identifying interventions that can reduce AD health disparities.