Association of Cardiovascular Diseases with Cognitive Performance in Older Adults

Background : Cognitive function and cardiovascular disease (CVD) have a bidirectional relationship, but studies on the impact of CVD subtypes and aging spectrum have been scarce. Methods : We assessed older adults aged ≥60 years from the 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey who had coronary heart disease, angina, prior myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, or prior stroke. We compared CERAD-IR, CERAD-DR, Animal Fluency test, and DSST scores to assess cognitive performance in older adults with and without CVD. Results : We included 3,131 older adults, representing 55,479,673 older adults at the national level. Older adults with CVD had lower CERAD-IR (mean difference 1.8, 95% CI 1.4-2.1, p<0.001), CERAD-DR (mean difference 0.8, 95% CI 0.6-1.0, p<0.001), Animal Fluency test (mean difference 2.1, 95% CI 1.6-2.6, p<0.001), and DSST (mean difference 9.5, 95% CI 8.0-10.9, p<0.001) scores compared with those without CVD. After adjustment, no difference in CERAD-IR, CERAD-DR, and Animal Fluency test scores was observed, but DSST scores were lower in older adults with CVD (adjusted mean difference 2.9, 95% CI 1.1-4.7, p=0.001). Across CVD sub-types, individuals with congestive heart failure had lower performance on the DSST score. The oldest-old cohort of patients ≥80 years old with CVD had lower performance than those without CVD on both the DSST and Animal Fluency test. Conclusion : Older adults with CVD had lower cognitive performance as measured than those free of CVD, driven by pronounced differences among those with CHF and those ≥80 years old with CVD.