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P4‐026: Use of statins, LDL‐C and incidence of cognitive impairment or dementia in a seven‐year cohort study of older Mexican‐Americans
Author(s) -
Haan Mary N.,
Cramer Caryn
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2008.05.2090
Subject(s) - dementia , medicine , statin , cohort , incidence (geometry) , pravastatin , population , atorvastatin , cognitive decline , cognition , cohort study , gerontology , physical therapy , psychiatry , cholesterol , disease , environmental health , physics , optics
after awakening and late in the evening. After 4 years, 852 persons received follow-up. At baseline and follow-up, global cognitive functioning, verbal memory performance, and processing speed were assessed using the MMSE; the 15 Word Learning Test (verbal learning during 3 trials, delayed recall, and memory retention (%)); and a digit-coding task (score range 0-50). Using linear mixed models adjusted for age, gender, education, smoking, alcohol use, BMI, hypertension, diabetes, vascular disease, and depressive symptoms, the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of awakening and evening cortisol and diurnal variability (per nmol/l increase) with cognitive outcomes were estimated. Results: Crosssectionally, higher evening cortisol levels were associated with poorer delayed recall (B -0.05; 95% CI -0.09 to -0.01) and poorer memory retention (B -0.42; 95% CI -0.70 to -0.14), but not with verbal learning. High diurnal variability of cortisol was related to better scores on verbal learning (B 0.13; 95% CI 0.02 to 0.24); better delayed recall (B 0.08; 95% CI 0.02 to 0.14); and better memory retention (B 0.59; 95% CI 0.13 to 1.04). No associations were found between salivary cortisol and MMSE or processing speed. Also, awakening levels were not associated with any of the cognition measures. Although all cognitive scores declined over time, no longitudinal associations were observed between any of the cortisol measures and cognitive decline for any cognitive test. Conclusions: In this older non-demented population, higher levels of evening cortisol and low diurnal variability of cortisol are associated with poorer verbal memory performance, but not with memory decline or decline in other cognitive domains after 4 years of follow-up. Our findings do not support the hypothesis that excessive glucocorticoids increase the risk for Alzheimer’s disease.