UC Davis

Background

Midlife cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) increase risk of dementia. Black Americans experience an elevated prevalence of CVRF and dementia. However, little is known of how CVRF prior to midlife affect late-life cognition. We examined CVRF in adolescence, young adulthood, and midlife with late-life cognition in The Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans (STAR).

Methods

STAR assesses cognitive aging among 764 Black Americans ages ≥50 (mean age=69;SD=9;range 53-95). Participants' body mass index, blood pressure, glucose, and total cholesterol were collected during Multiphasic Health Check-ups (MHC;1964-1985). At STAR baseline (2018-2019), executive function, verbal episodic memory, and semantic memory were measured using the Spanish and English Neuropsychological Assessment Scales. Linear regression models examined associations between CVRF and cognition adjusting for demographics and years since MHC.

Results

At MHC, 36% of participants had 1 CVRF and 26% had ≥2. Twenty-two percent of participants were adolescents (ages:12-20), 62% young adults (ages:21-34), and 16% midlife adults (ages:35-56). Overweight/obesity was not associated with cognition. Hypertension was associated with worse executive function [β(95%CI):-0.14(-0.28,-0.0003)] and verbal episodic memory [β(95%CI):-0.22(-0.37,-0.07)] compared to normotension. Diabetes was associated with worse executive function [β(95%CI):-0.43(-0.83,-0.03)]. Having ≥2 CVRF (versus 0) was associated with worse executive function [β(95%CI):-0.19(-0.34,-0.03)] and verbal episodic memory [β(95%CI):-0.25(-0.41,-0.08)]. Adolescents with hypertension had lower late-life executive function compared to normotensive adolescents [β(95%CI):-0.39(-0.67,-0.11)]. Young adulthood hypertension [β(95%CI):-0.29(-0.49,-0.09)] and midlife hyperlipidemia [β(95%CI):-0.386(-0.70,-0.02)] were associated with lower verbal episodic memory.

Conclusions

Among Black Americans, lifecourse CVRF were associated with poorer executive function and verbal episodic memory emphasizing the importance of cardiovascular health on the aging brain.