Novel approaches to explore national and state-based evidence on the burden of cognitive difficulties among Middle Eastern and North African Americans​

The cognitive health of older Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Americans differs from other racial/ethnic groups. Existing national and state-based estimates of the disparity are limited because MENA Americans are classified as White by the US federal government despite evidence that their health and lived experiences differ from Whites. This is particularly concerning among growing populations of older adults in states with the three largest populations of MENA Americans (California, Michigan, and Texas). It also remains unknown whether removing MENA Americans from the White group will identify larger disparities in cognitive difficulties between other racial/ethnic groups and Whites. Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS), this study aims to use novel methods to examine cognitive difficulty among MENA Americans compared to all other federally required reporting categories and determine how these estimates differ when MENA Americans are removed from the non-Hispanic White group using national and state-level samples.