Metabolic Syndrome and Cognitive Decline Among the Oldest Old in Okinawa: In Search of a Mechanism. The KOCOA Project

Abstract

The study aim was to test whether the metabolic syndrome or its components predicted cognitive decline among persons aged 80 years and older (mean 85.0 years). Participants were members of the "Keys to Optimal Cognitive Aging Project," a prospective cohort study in Okinawa, Japan. Metabolic syndrome was assessed at baseline. Cognitive functions were assessed annually for up to 3 years. One hundred and forty-eight participants completed at least one follow-up with 101 participating in all three assessments and 47 participating in two of the three assessments. The mean and median duration of follow-up were 1.8 and 2 years, respectively. Metabolic syndrome and four components were not associated with decline in global and executive cognitive functions. However, high glycosylated hemoglobin was associated with decline in memory function at the second follow-up. Our study supports accumulating evidence that the positive association between metabolic syndrome and cognitive function might not hold for the oldest old.

Associations between Serum Omega-3 Fatty Acid Levels and Cognitive Functions among Community-Dwelling Octogenarians in Okinawa, Japan: The KOCOA Study

“…A detailed description of the recruitment process has been described elsewhere [26,27]. Briefly, researchers visited 21 senior centers, explained the study protocol, and asked them to participate in the study.…”

The association of metabolic syndrome and aging with cognition in Asian men

“…It is a simple scoring system with no single dominant component, and is used by several studies evaluating the association of MetS with human cognition [13,26,36]. In the present study, we evaluated the association of MetS as a whole as well as the individual risk components with the different parameters of cognition.…”

Midlife Hypertension Risk and Cognition in the Non-Demented Oldest Old: Framingham Heart Study

“…Life expectancy is on the rise and the oldest old (≥80 years old) [1, 2] is the fastest growing demographic in the world [3]. Several studies have demonstrated that high cardiovascular risk at midlife, particularly hypertension (HTN), is linked to subsequent increased risk of dementia [4–8].…”