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New research on aging minority groups is timely and incorporates state of the art methodologies.

This issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry focuses on the timely and important topic of Research in Ethnic Minorities. At the present time, about half of hospital admissions in the United States are for people older than 65 years, even though this group accounts for less than 15% of the overall population. The number of people aged 65 years and older will double in the next 25 years. This increase will significantly impact demand for medical care, especially chronic conditions such as depression and cognitive disorders. It is estimated that by the Year 2060, a majority of Americans will be “ethnic minorities,” and this increase will be most pronounced for Latinos and African Americans. Although Latinos are projected to triple between 2000 and 2060 (from 11 to 33 million), African Americans are projected to grow about 50% and whites to grow only slightly during the same period. However, it is still unknown how effectively, disadvantaged minorities will assimilate into the mainstream of the United States. At the present time, these groups have higher than average healthcare needs compared with others, and this seems to result from income disparities and certain behaviors and attitudes that may be culturally related. Regarding healthcare services, research has shown that many of these groups may be better served by providers who understand the culture and by systems that are closely aligned with community needs. However, despite heightened public awareness on these issues and accumulating scientific knowledge and health initiatives, disparities in the provision of care to racial and ethnic minorities remain. These inequalities translate into inferior outcomes in these populations and are more prominent in the already underserved elderly population. In this issue of the journal, four articles address depression, cognitive dysfunction, and academic-community partnerships on minority elderly using state of the art methodologies. In the introductory sections of these articles, the existing disparities in health services among ethnic minority groups in the United States are highlighted and the urgent need to further investigate barriers to mental healthcare seeking, the consequences of delayed treatment, and the development of appropriate interventions are strongly emphasized. In the article by Gray et al., structured interviews that were duly translated and adapted to the respondents’ languages and cultures were administered at the participants’ homes. They examined an opportunistic sample of 236 women (84 Anglo, 83 Hispanic/ Latino, and 48 Chinese Americans) who provided care to relatives with dementia and who had difficulties with daily living activities, as evaluated by a psychiatrist. The interviews asked pointed research questions about several areas with a particular focus on cultural attitudes and beliefs about dementia and the various facets of the dilemma encountered by elderly ethnic minorities facing this problem. The results of this study reveal that compared with whites, Hispanic/Latinos and Chinese Americans are significantly less knowledgeable about the etiol-