Advancing brain health equity with Indigenous peoples: A critical imperative.

ABSTRACT: Indigenous communities hold rich knowledges, cultural practices, and kinship networks that sustain cognitive resilience and nurture brain health across the life course. Yet these enduring strengths are often obscured by biomedical models that overlook the structural determinants of health-including the cumulative effects of colonization, educational inequity, and socioeconomic disadvantage-that diminish brain health. Accordingly, dementia disproportionately affects Indigenous populations globally, often presenting with earlier onset and higher prevalence compared to non-Indigenous groups. This perspective synthesizes the current epidemiological evidence, situates dementia risk within its structural and historical context, and explores how Indigenous knowledges, cultural continuity, and com

SUBMITTER: Clarke AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12933636 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature