Do patients with Alzheimer's do better when their doctors or caregivers share their age, race, or gender?
Official title: Project 2 - Provider-Patient/Caregiver Demographic Concordance in Health Care Systems: Their Influence on Health and Healthcare Outcomes for Populations with ADRD
Funded at National Bureau of Economic Research · NIH-11195567 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at whether people with Alzheimer's and related dementias get more trust and better care when their clinicians or caregivers have similar demographic backgrounds.
Quick facts
| Grant type | P01 program project |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | National Bureau of Economic Research NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Cambridge, United States) |
| Project start | February 1, 1997 |
| Project end | August 31, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $265,037 |
| NIH project number | 5P01AG005842-36 |
| Project ID | NIH-11195567 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
This work most directly concerns Medicare beneficiaries with Alzheimer's disease or related dementias, especially those who use emergency departments or primary care.
✕Less likely to help
People who are not on Medicare, live outside the U.S., or do not interact with the healthcare settings analyzed may not directly benefit from this project.
What this research studies
If you or a loved one are on Medicare with Alzheimer's or a related dementia, researchers will examine decades of Medicare records from both rural and urban areas to see how matches between patient and provider demographics relate to care and trust. They will link information about doctors' age, race, and gender to patient claims and use emergency-department visits—where patients are often assigned to providers almost at random—to make fair comparisons. Statistical methods that approximate causal comparisons will be used to compare outcomes like preventable ED visits, hospital admissions and readmissions, healthy days at home, medication adherence, and mortality. The team will also look at whether any differences are explained by trust or other factors and whether effects change over time.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the findings could guide policies or staffing practices that improve trust and reduce avoidable hospital visits for people with ADRD.
How similar studies have gone: Previous research has linked demographic concordance to greater patient trust and satisfaction, but strong causal evidence on concrete health outcomes for dementia patients is limited.
Where this research is happening
-
National Bureau of Economic Research
Cambridge, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Simon, Kosali Ilayperuma — National Bureau of Economic Research
- Study coordinator: Simon, Kosali Ilayperuma
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.