Volga German surnames and Alzheimer’s disease in Argentina: an epidemiological perspective

MORALES, ARTURO LEONARDO; FIGUEROA, MARCELO ISIDRO; NAVARRO, PABLO; CHAVES, ESTELA RAQUEL; RUDERMAN, ANAHÍ; DIPIERRI, JOSÉ EDGARDO; RAMALLO, VIRGINIA

JOURNAL OF BIOSOCIAL SCIENCE

Cambrige University Press

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2024 p. 1 - 14

0021-9320

TheN141I variant (PSEN1 gene) is associated with familial forms ofearly-onset Alzheimer´s disease in descendants of Volga Germans,whose migration to Argentina is well documented. As a proxy forgeographic origin, surnames can be a valuable tool in populationstudies. The 2015 Argentine Electoral Registry provided geographicdata for 30,530,194 individuals, including 326,922 with Volga Germansurnames. Between 2005 and 2017, the Ministry of Health recorded4,115,216 deaths, of which 17,226 were attributed to Alzheimer´sdisease and related causes. The study used both diachronic andsynchronic data to identify patterns of territorial distribution andco-spatiality, using Moran´s I and generalised linear modelstatistics. The frequency of surnames of Volga German origin accountsfor 43.53% of the variation in deaths from Alzheimer´s disease andthree clusters of high non-random frequency were found. Almost 150years later, people descending from the Volga migration remain highlyconcentrated and may have a different risk of developing Alzheimer´sdisease. The identification of spatial patterns provides reliableguidance for medical research and highlights the importance ofspecific health policies for particular populations.p { color: #000000; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; direction: ltr; background: transparent }p.western { font-family: "Calibri", serif; font-size: 11pt; so-language: en-US }p.cjk { font-family: "Calibri"; font-size: 11pt; so-language: en-US }p.ctl { font-family: "DejaVu Sans"; font-size: 11pt; so-language: ar-SA }a:link { color: #0563c1; text-decoration: underline }