Frontotemporal Dementia Under-Recognized in Hispanics
Latinos have higher rates of dementia but are left out of research.
While dementia afflicts Latinos at higher rates, they are underrepresented in frontotemporal dementia research. A new study done in Texas points out that Hispanics face barriers in accessing medical care and have different symptoms which go unrecognized, causing delayed diagnosis and care.
It was long assumed that FTD was uncommon among Hispanics, but in reality, these populations are extremely underrepresented in research. Less than 5% of nearly 2,500 participants with FTD in a national database identified as Hispanic or Latino.
What Is Frontotemporal Dementia?
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a group of progressive brain disorders caused by degeneration of the frontal and temporal lobes. These brain regions, behind the forehead and near the ears and temples respectively, help regulate behavior, personality, judgment, emotions, and language.
FTD is a leading cause of young-onset dementia, which begins before age 60, but often starts as young as age 45. Because prominent memory loss is not an early symptom as in dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease, FTD can be missed, appearing to be stress or mental illness.
Signs of FTD depend on which brain regions are affected. In Behavioral-Variant FTD, the most common type, a person may show less empathy along with impulsivity, socially inappropriate conduct, apathy, compulsive behavior, altered eating habits, and difficulty planning or making decisions. This type is also known as Pick’s disease.
Forms of FTD that primarily disrupt language and are called Primary Progressive Aphasia. In these, people gradually lose the ability to produce fluent speech, pronounce words, follow grammar, speak in complex sentences, name familiar objects, or understand the meaning of words. Still other types of FTD affect balance, motor control, vision, and coordination.
FTD in Hispanic Populations
In a study published in July of 2026, researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio, found that Hispanic and Latino people with frontotemporal dementia faced years of delay compared to other patients in South Texas and across the country. When finally diagnosed, they had more severe cognitive impairment.
For many Hispanics, their symptoms were misdiagnosed as psychiatric conditions. Even when functional decline was obvious, their neurodegeneration was often not recognized until impairment was significant.
FTD was also missed in Hispanic and Latino participants because they were more likely to show movement-related symptoms of difficulty coordinating learned movements, abnormal muscle contractions, and problems with balance. By contrast, care partners of non-Hispanic white participants tended to report a loss of empathy.
Lower levels of educational attainment and barriers to accessing healthcare also contributed to delays in diagnosis and treatment. Cultural differences in recognizing and reporting symptoms were also a factor.
“The findings underscore diagnostic severity and systemic barriers faced by Hispanic populations with FTD, emphasizing the need for culturally sensitive diagnostic tools and interventions for equitable dementia care,” says study author A. Campbell Sullivan, PsyD, ABPP-CN, clinical associate professor of neurology with the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio.
A Small but Important Study
These findings do not show that ethnicity itself causes a different form of FTD, but how symptoms, education, culture, and access to care act as barriers to research, diagnosis, and care.
The group studied was small, comprising just 41 Hispanic and participants, limiting the strength of the conclusions. Larger, long-term studies of Hispanics with better bilingual tools, culturally appropriate cognitive tests, consistent brain imaging, genetic testing, and biological markers are needed to determine the prevalence of FTD in Hispanics accurately.
Importance of Early Diagnosis
Early recognition of FTD provides patients and families more time to understand the disease, arrange support, explore treatment options, and prepare for changes in communication, behavior, and independence. Reducing cultural, educational, and healthcare barriers makes timely, accurate diagnosis possible.
