Midlife cardiovascular risk factors, including diabetes, hypertension, dyslipemia, and an unhealthy lifestyle, have been linked to subsequent incidence, delay of onset, and progression rate of Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia. Conversely, optimal treatment of cardiovascular risk factors prevents and slows down age-related cognitive disorders. The impact of antihypertensive therapy on cog...

BACKGROUND Cognitive impairment in general is known to predict functional disability, but it is not clear whether performance on specific cognitive domains predicts future disability trends among nondemented elderly persons. METHODS In a representative elderly community-based cohort over up to 10 years of follow-up, we examined predictors of longitudinal trajectories in ability to perform Ins...

BACKGROUND The long-term course of cognitive impairments secondary to cardiovascular disease (CVD) is unclear. In this study, we prospectively investigated the temporal pattern, rate and hierarchy of cognitive decline attributable to CVD--a risk factor for the development of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI)--and examined the influence of cardiac surgery and heart failure on cognitive decline...

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between alcohol consumption in midlife and subsequent cognitive decline. METHODS Data are from 5,054 men and 2,099 women from the Whitehall II cohort study with a mean age of 56 years (range 44-69 years) at first cognitive assessment. Alcohol consumption was assessed 3 times in the 10 years preceding the first cognitive assessment (1997-1999). Cognitive te...

PURPOSE Up to 53% of cardiac surgery patients experience postoperative neurocognitive decline. Cerebral oximetry is designed to detect changes in cerebral tissue saturation and therefore may be useful to predict which patients are at risk of developing neurocognitive decline. METHODS This is a retrospective analysis of a prospective study originally designed to determine if treatment of cereb...

BACKGROUND The authors investigated type and severity of cognitive decline in older adults immediately and 3 months after noncardiac surgery. Changes in instrumental activities of daily living were examined relative to type of cognitive decline. METHODS Of the initial 417 older adults enrolled in the study, 337 surgery patients and 60 controls completed baseline, discharge, and/or 3-month pos...

BACKGROUND Both cognitive ability and cognitive decline have been shown to predict mortality in older people. As dementia, a major form of cognitive decline, has an established association with shorter survival, it is unclear the extent to which cognitive ability and cognitive decline predict mortality in the absence of dementia. OBJECTIVE To determine whether cognitive ability and decline in...

CONTEXT Smoking is a possible risk factor for dementia, although its impact may have been underestimated in elderly populations because of the shorter life span of smokers. OBJECTIVE To examine the association between smoking history and cognitive decline in the transition from midlife to old age. DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING The Whitehall II study. The first cognitive assessment was in 1...

BACKGROUND studies of cognitive ageing at the group level suggest that age is associated with cognitive decline; however, there may be individual differences such that not all older adults will experience cognitive decline. OBJECTIVE to evaluate patterns of cognitive decline in a cohort of older adults initially free of dementia. DESIGN, SETTING AND SUBJECTS elderly Catholic clergy members ...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that hospitalization in old age is associated with subsequent cognitive decline. METHODS As part of a longitudinal population-based cohort study, 1,870 older residents of an urban community were interviewed at 3-year intervals for up to 12 years. The interview included a set of brief cognitive tests from which measures of global cognition, episodic memory, and...