Key result
Cardiovascular disease linked to higher incident dementia risk, but the association attenuates with advanced age.
Why the study?
There is conflicting evidence whether age moderates the association between cardiovascular risk factors or diseases and dementia, necessitating study to target appropriate age groups.
Cohort (n=320,630)
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Associations of diabetes, stroke, and HF with dementia weaken in advanced age; leaves open whether age-tailored prevention warrants prospective study.
The link between cardiovascular (CV) risk factors or diseases and dementia is documented. There is conflicting evidence whether age moderates the association. We need to study this gap so that research and clinical initiatives target appropriate age groups. A cohort of 320,630 adult patients without dementia was built using Quebec healthcare databases (1998-2010). The CV risk factors were hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia, while diseases included stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), chronic heart failure (HF), and atrial fibrillation (AF). Dementia risk and CV risk factors or diseases were assessed using incidence rate ratios and Cox regression across age groups. The cohort presented by mainly female sex (67.7%) and mean age of 74.1 years. Incident rate of dementia increased with age, ranging from 4.1 to 93.5 per 1000 person-years. Diabetes, stroke, HF and AF were significantly associated with dementia risk, hazard ratios ranged from 1.08 to 3.54. The strength of association decreased in advanced age for diabetes, stroke and HF. The results suggest that prevention of diabetes, stroke, HF and AF are crucial to mitigate dementia risk. The pathophysiology of dementia in younger and older populations seems to differ, with less impact of CV risk factors in advanced age.
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Boivin‐Proulx et al. (2023) conducted a cohort in Dementia (n=320,630). Cardiovascular risk factors and diseases (diabetes, stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, hypertension, dyslipidemia, myocardial infarction) vs. Patients without the specific cardiovascular risk factor or disease was evaluated on Incidence of dementia within each age group during a 5-year follow-up (HRs ranging from 1.08 to 3.54). Cardiovascular diseases (diabetes, stroke, heart failure, AF) increased incident dementia risk (HRs 1.08-3.54), but the strength of this association weakened significantly in advanced age.
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