Dementia and dyslipidaemia: evidence from a cohort study on an elderly italian population

Abstract

Introduction. Recent studies have found that high cholesterol levels are associated with dementia. Objective. This study aimed to assess the effect of dyslipidemia on the onset of dementia after 8 years of follow-up in a cohort of non-institutionalized healthy Italian elderly, living in the hinterland of Milan, enrolled in the study in 2010. Materials and Methods. Dyslipidemia was defined as an alteration of cholesterol alone (pathological value of >240 mg/dl], triglycerides alone (pathological value of >150 mg/dl), or mixed dyslipidemia. A total of 692 healthy women and 586 men, with an average age of 72.1 years (±1.3 years) at baseline, were studied. The risk of dementia over the 8 follow-up years was analyzed, comparing subjects with hypercholesterolemia alone, hypertriglyceridemia alone, and those without any dyslipidemia. The analysis was adjusted for known risk factors such as age, education, spoken walking test, marital status, gender, and frailty. Results. The risk of dementia over the 8-year follow-up was higher in subjects with hypercholesterolemia alone (11.2%) and hypertriglyceridemia alone (11.2%) compared to those without any dyslipidemia (8%), but these slight excesses were not significant (p = 0.41). Subjects with dyslipidemia related to hypercholesterolemia alone showed a borderline higher risk of dementia than those without dyslipidemia (OR = 1.7, 0.97-2.86, p = 0.065). Elders with hypertriglyceridemia alone presented a risk of dementia 1.3 times greater than those without dyslipidemia, though this risk was not significant (p = 0.42). Conclusions. The results indicated that dyslipidemia in the context of hypercholesterolemia might play a role in the onset of dementia, consistent with the findings of Chung et al. However, this association was not confirmed when using the dichotomization of total cholesterol to the pathological value.