Cardiovascular Risks in Middle Age May Be Worse for Cognition in Women 

As published by Neurology, cardiovascular conditions in women are more associated with a negative impact on thinking and memory abilities compared with men. The cardiovascular conditions more associated with the negative impact are heart disease and stroke and risk factors like diabetes, high blood pressure, and smoking.

“Our results show that midlife cardiovascular conditions and risk factors were associated with midlife cognitive decline, but the association is stronger for women,” said study author Michelle M. Mielke, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “Specifically, we found that certain cardiovascular conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and dyslipidemia, which is abnormally high levels of fats in the blood, had stronger associations with cognitive decline in women compared to men.”

Participants (n=1,857) without dementia age 50 and 69 were in the study and evaluated every 15 months for 3 years with 9 cognitive tests. 

At least 1 cardiovascular condition or risk factor was found in 70.3% participants. Men had a higher likelihood of cardiovascular conditions than women (83.4% vs 74.5%, P<.0001).  Heart disease was associated with more than a twofold greater decline in composite cognitive test scores for women compared with men. The study also showed that diabetes, heart disease, and/or abnormally high levels of fat in the blood were associated with language decline in women only, whereas congestive heart failure was associated with language decline in men only (P<.05).

“More research is needed to examine sex differences in the relationships between the cardiovascular risk factors and specific biomarkers of brain disease like white matter hyperintensities, areas of dead tissue and overall white matter integrity in midlife," Mielke said. "That may help us better understand the sex-specific mechanisms, by which the cardiovascular conditions and risk factors contribute to cognitive impairment in both women and men."

The study was limited by being restricted to a single county in Minnesota.