More women get Alzheimer’s than men. It may not just be because they live longer – CBC

Age is still considered an important risk for women, but now scientists are looking at other factors

Aug 10, 2025

Working three full-time jobs, raising kids and tending her blooming garden: Angeleta Cox says her mother, Sonia Elizabeth Cox, never really slowed down all her life.

Then, at the age of 64, a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s slammed the brakes on the vibrant life she’d painstakingly built after immigrating to Canada from Jamaica in 1985.

“The onset of the symptoms came on very fast,” Cox said of her mother.

“She forgot my dad first, and she wasn’t able to respond to my brother, so I became a care provider for her,” said Cox. Sonia Elizabeth died late last year, after years of battling Alzheimer’s.

More women get diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease than men. In developed countries, studies suggest about two-thirds of people with Alzheimer’s are women. It’s a pattern seen in Canada, too, where women account for almost two-thirds of people with dementia, according to the last count from Statistics Canada.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/alzheimer-women-risks-1.7604574