Does cognitive impairment increase the risk of cardiovascular events and mortality in people at increased CV risk?
Cognitive impairment, specifically an MMSE score <24, is a significant risk factor for stroke, heart failure, and cardiovascular death in patients already at increased cardiovascular risk.
In people at increased CV risk, impairments on baseline cognitive testing are associated with a graded increase in the risk of stroke, congestive heart failure, and CV death, but not coronary events. An MMSE score of <24 increased CV disease risk to the same extent as a previous stroke.
O’Donnell et al. (2012) studied this question.