We use cookies to provide you with the best possible website experience. This includes cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site, as well as cookies used for anonymous statistics, comfort settings, or displaying personalized content. You can decide which categories you want to allow. Please note that depending on your settings, some features of the website may not be available.

Cookie settings

These necessary cookies are required to enable the core functionality of the website. Opting out of these cookies is not possible.

cb-enable
This cookie stores the user's cookie consent status for the current domain. Expiry: 1 year.
laravel_session
Stores the session ID to recognize the user when the page reloads and to restore their login session. Expiry: 2 hours.
XSRF-TOKEN
Provides CSRF protection for forms. Expiry: 2 hours.
IZA Discussion Paper No. 18494
March 2026
Long-Term Trends in Racial and Ethnic Reporting and Representation in US Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials
Zhuoer Lin, Ruochen Sun, Joseph R. Ross, Kien Lau, Sofia Stumpf, Xi Chen

Alzheimer's disease (AD) disproportionately burdens racial and ethnic minority populations, yet the extent to which clinical trials reflect this burden remains poorly understood. We review all US-based Phase III AD drug trials (1997-2023), using a multi-source approach that integrates the Trialtrove clinical trial database with PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov, pharmaceutical reports, and conference abstracts. We document three main findings. First, nearly half of published trials reported no data on patient race or ethnicity. Among trials that did report, practices were highly inconsistent in terminology, categorization, and analytical depth. Second, White patients constituted shares of enrollment that are grossly disproportionate to AD prevalence rates. Third, almost no trials conducted any subgroup analyses by race or ethnicity. Critically, there is no evidence of improvement in reporting or representation. These patterns limit the generalizability of AD treatment evidence. Our findings support strengthening mandatory reporting standards, broadening eligibility criteria, and diversifying trial site selection to ensure emerging AD treatments are evaluated equitably across the populations most affected.

Communications
Mark Fallak
mark.fallak@liser.lu
+352 585-855-526
World of Labour
Olga Nottmeyer
olga.nottmeyer@liser.lu
+352 585-855-501
Network Coordination
Christina Gathmann
christina.gathmann@liser.lu

The IZA@LISER Network is a global community of scholars dedicated to excellence in labor economics and related fields, now coordinated at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) following its transition from Bonn.

About IZA@LISER Network
Contact
IZA Network (Current Site Operator):

Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)
11, Porte des Sciences
Maison des Sciences Humaines
L-4366 Esch-sur-Alzette / Belval, Luxembourg

IZA Institute (In Liquidation):

Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH i. L.
Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 5-9, 53113 Bonn. Germany
Phone: +49 228 3894-0 | Fax: +49 228 3894-510
E-Mail: info@iza.org | Web: www.iza.org
Represented by: Martin T. Clemens (Liquidator)