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Blood pressure and cognitive function across the eighth decade: a prospective study of the Lothian Birth Cohort of 1936.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES:We investigated the associations among blood pressure and cognitive functions across the eighth decade, while accounting for antihypertensive medication and lifetime stability in cognitive function. DESIGN:Prospective cohort study. SETTING:This study used data from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936) study, which recruited participants living in the Lothian region of Scotland when aged 70 years, most of whom had completed an intelligence test at age 11 years. PARTICIPANTS:1091 members of the LBC1936 with assessments of cognitive ability in childhood and older adulthood, and blood pressure measurements in older adulthood. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES:Participants were followed up at ages 70, 73, 76 and 79, and latent growth curve models and linear mixed models were used to analyse both cognitive functions and blood pressure as primary outcomes. RESULTS:Blood pressure followed a quadratic trajectory in the eighth decade: on average blood pressure rose in the first waves and subsequently fell. Intercepts and trajectories were not associated between blood pressure and cognitive functions. Women with higher early-life cognitive function generally had lower blood pressure during the eighth decade. Being prescribed antihypertensive medication was associated with lower blood pressure, but not with better cognitive function. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings indicate that women with higher early-life cognitive function had lower later-life blood pressure. However, we did not find support for the hypothesis that rises in blood pressure and worse cognitive decline are associated with one another in the eighth decade.

SUBMITTER: Altschul D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7380861 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Blood pressure and cognitive function across the eighth decade: a prospective study of the Lothian Birth Cohort of 1936.

Altschul Drew D Starr John J Deary Ian I

BMJ open 20200723 7

<h4>Objectives</h4>We investigated the associations among blood pressure and cognitive functions across the eighth decade, while accounting for antihypertensive medication and lifetime stability in cognitive function.<h4>Design</h4>Prospective cohort study.<h4>Setting</h4>This study used data from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936) study, which recruited participants living in the Lothian region of Scotland when aged 70 years, most of whom had completed an intelligence test at age 11 years. ...[more]

PMID: 32709639

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Project description:Structural measures of the hippocampus have been linked to a variety of memory processes and also to broader cognitive abilities. Gross volumetry has been widely used, yet the hippocampus has a complex formation, comprising distinct subfields which may be differentially sensitive to the deleterious effects of age, and to different aspects of cognitive performance. However, a comprehensive analysis of multidomain cognitive associations with hippocampal deformations among a large group of cognitively normal older adults is currently lacking. In 654 participants of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (mean age = 72.5, SD = 0.71 years), we examined associations between the morphology of the hippocampus and a variety of memory tests (spatial span, letter-number sequencing, verbal recall, and digit backwards), as well as broader cognitive domains (latent measures of speed, fluid intelligence, and memory). Following correction for age, sex, and vascular risk factors, analysis of memory subtests revealed that only right hippocampal associations in relation to spatial memory survived type 1 error correction in subiculum and in CA1 at the head (β = 0.201, p = 5.843 × 10-4, outward), and in the ventral tail section of CA1 (β = -0.272, p = 1.347 × 10-5, inward). With respect to latent measures of cognitive domains, only deformations associated with processing speed survived type 1 error correction in bilateral subiculum (βabsolute ≤ 0.247, p < 1.369 × 10-4, outward), bilaterally in the ventral tail section of CA1 (βabsolute ≤ 0.242, p < 3.451 × 10-6, inward), and a cluster at the left anterior-to-dorsal region of the head (β = 0.199, p = 5.220 × 10-6, outward). Overall, our results indicate that a complex pattern of both inward and outward hippocampal deformations are associated with better processing speed and spatial memory in older age, suggesting that complex shape-based hippocampal analyses may provide valuable information beyond gross volumetry.

Dataset Information

Blood pressure and cognitive function across the eighth decade: a prospective study of the Lothian Birth Cohort of 1936.

Publications

Blood pressure and cognitive function across the eighth decade: a prospective study of the Lothian Birth Cohort of 1936.

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