On 15 December, a group of researchers led by Prof. Miia Kivipelto and Prof. Chengxuan Qiu published an article in PLOS Medicine, identifying an association between healthy cardiovascular lifestyles in midlife and reduced risk of dementia in later years.
The recent Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care identified 11 lifestyle habits or treatable diseases that are associated with increased risk of developing dementia. In their recent PLOS Medicine study, Profs. Kivipelto and Qiu took a closer look at cardiovascular health factors including smoking, physical activity, diet, body weight, blood glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure, aiming to understand how these metrics in midlife and later life might be associated with the development of dementia as people age.
Analysing data from 1,449 participants in the Finnish Cardiovascular risk factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) study, the researchers categorized participants based on their cardiovascular health (CVH) factors, identifying those with ‘poor’, ‘intermediate’ or ‘ideal’ CVH factors in midlife or later life. CAIDE participants were followed for an average of 21 years, allowing the researchers to see which participants developed dementia over time. Compared to those with ‘poor’ CVH factors in midlife (e.g smokers with high blood pressure and low physical activity levels), participants with ‘intermediate’ or ‘ideal’ levels of cardiovascular health in midlife were at lower risk of developing dementia.
Although the numbers of people who developed dementia during the study period were fairly small, the study results underline the importance of maintaining life-long cardiovascular health to reduce dementia risk in older age.
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003474
