The Association between Aggregate Cardiovascular Risk and Cognitions in Community-dwelling Older Adults

Objective: Cardiovascular (CV) risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, are associated with cognitive impairment and risk of dementia in the elderly. But CV risk factors rarely exist alone in older adults and probably exert additive or synergistic effect on health outcomes. In this study, we intended to investigate the associations between aggregate CV risk and cognitions in a group of community-dwelling older adults. Methods: Five hundred and three participants (mean age: 65.7 years) from the Baltimore Experience Corps^® Trial, received cognitive tests for information processing speed, memory, and executive function. We examined whether aggregate CV risk at baseline as measured by the Framingham general cardiovascular risk profile was associated with cognitions. Results: Higher aggregate CV risk was significantly associated with baseline poorer information-processing speed (β = -0.35, 95% confidence interval = -0.68 - -0.02, p ＜ 0.05) and baseline neutral condition of the executive function (β = -0.16, 95% confidence interval = -0.32 - -0.00, p ＜ 0.05) after adjusting factors for age, sex, education, socioeconomic status, depression and physical activity. Conclusion: Higher CV risk was associated with slower processing speed and lower neutral condition of the executive function in a group of cognitively normal adults without prevalent major CV events.