Metabolic Syndrome and Dementia Risk in a Multiethnic Elderly Cohort

Abstract

Background/Aims: The metabolic syndrome (MeSy) may be related to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Our aims were to investigate the association of the MeSy with incident dementia in a multiethnic elderly cohort in the United States. Methods: We conducted cross-sectional and prospective analyses in 2,476 men and women aged 65 years and older and with data available on the MeSy and dementia diagnosis in Northern New York City. MeSy was defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Program III and the European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance criteria. Dementia was diagnosed using standard criteria. Results: No association was found between MeSy and prevalent dementia. After 4.4 years of follow-up, 236 individuals of the 1,833 without prevalent dementia developed dementia. MeSy was not associated with incident dementia. Of the components of the MeSy, diabetes and hyperinsulinemia were associated with an increased risk of incident AD [hazard ratio 1.4 (95% CI 1.0–2.1), and hazard ratio 1.4 (95% CI 0.9–2.7), respectively] and dementia associated with stroke [hazard ratio 1.9 (95% CI 1.1–3.1), and hazard ratio 2.3 (95% CI 1.1–4.7), respectively]. Conclusions: The MeSy was not associated with an increased dementia risk in a multiethnic elderly cohort, but diabetes and hyperinsulinemia were. In the elderly, examining diabetes and hyperinsulinemia separately may be preferable to using the MeSy as a risk factor.

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

“…Gender and age may complicate the associations of MetS and cognition [11,12,[22][23][24][25][26][27]. Hence, the observations noted in the present study are applicable only to men between the ages of 29 to 72 y and specific to the perceptual and short-term memory Table 1.…”

“…Gender, age, educational levels, and race have also been shown to have a bearing on cognitive performance. It has been shown that MetS was associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline in adults aged between 65 and 74 year, but in the oldest of old (those !80 y), the association disappeared [22][23][24][25]. Other studies have shown that the association of MetS with cognition was gender dependent.…”

“…Differences were observed when different cognitive domains were assessed and when different cognitive function tests with varying sensitivity were employed. MetS was significantly associated with memory and visuospatial but not with the executive cognitive domains [22]. Gender, age, educational levels, and race have also been shown to have a bearing on cognitive performance.…”

The Association of Metabolic Syndrome with Executive Dysfunction Independent of Subclinical Ischemic Brain Lesions in Japanese Adults

“…Recent studies have demonstrated that metabolic syndrome is a risk factor for cognitive impairment, and it is associated with an increased risk of developing cognitive impairment related to Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia [16,27,28]. However, it was not clear whether this cognitive impairment is associated with structural changes in the brain or whether the association between metabolic syndrome and cognitive impairment is observed even in healthy subjects.…”

Chronoscopic reading in whole body reaction times in detecting cognitive dysfunction in metabolic syndrome: A case control study

“…There are only a few studies on the metabolic syndrome as a whole, and most of them have been limited to elderly or older populations. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Furthermore, the findings are mixed: Although some reports suggest that metabolic syndrome predicts cognitive deficit, [4] cognitive decline, [14,15] and dementia, [11,13] at least two studies showed metabolic syndrome to be associated with better cognitive performance [9] and decelerated cognitive decline. [12] A further study found no significant relationship between metabolic syndrome and dementia.…”