Decline in memory due to lifestyle factors

Data from a Chinese study showed that memory decline was slower in older adults who led healthy lifestyles, even among those at higher genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

People over 60 who had at least 4 of the 6 preferred lifestyle factors: healthy eating, exercise, social contact, cognitive activity, smoking cessation or alcohol consumption had only 1 healthy factor. and co-authors with Jianping Jia, MD, PhD, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing.

Over 10 years, memory decline on the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) was 0.28 points lower in the favorable lifestyle group than in the unfavorable lifestyle group (0.028 points/year, 95% CI 0.023-0.032, P.<0.001), reported by Jia and co-authors BMJMore.

People with apolipoprotein Eε4 (APOE4) The allele was also associated with a favorable lifestyle (0.027 points/year, 95% CI 0.023-0.031) or an average lifestyle with two or three health factors (0.014 points/year, 95% CI 0.010-0.019). , memory decline was slow. disadvantageous.Similar resultsAPOE4 career.

“APOE4” It is the strongest known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and this result is particularly important in the context of ongoing and future targeted prevention trials,” said Severin Sabia of the University of Paris. Dr. and Dr. Archana Singh Manu said. , University College London, in an accompanying editorial.

“These results support the idea that lifestyle changes can counteract their detrimental effects. APOE4 On cognitive decline and dementia,” added Sabia and Shin Manow.

Previous research has APOE4 It does affect cognitive decline, but it doesn’t negate all the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. In the United States, healthy lifestyle scores in middle age are associated with later cognitive improvements. APOE4 career. And in the FINGER trial, APOE4 Carriers who participated in interventions that included diet, exercise, cognitive training, and vascular risk management performed better than controls on annual cognitive tests.

Jia and co-authors analyzed data from 29,072 adults from the COAST study who were initially tested as cognitively normal. The average age was approximately 72 years. 48.5% of the cohort were female and 20.4% were female. APOE4 career.

At baseline in 2009, participants completed the AVLT. They were evaluated again in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2019. Lifestyle scores and health-related covariates were also determined at baseline and at each follow-up visit.

AVLT measured immediate recall, short- and long-delay recall, and long-delay recognition. Scores for immediate recall range from 0 to 60, while scores for all other tests range from 0 to 15.Researchers built a composite Ze Memory Function Score by Averaging Ze Scores for each part of the AVLT.

Of the six healthy lifestyle components, diet was most strongly associated with memory (β 0.016, 95% CI 0.014-0.017, P.<0.001), followed by cognitive activity, physical exercise, and social contact.

“Each lifestyle factor contributed to delaying memory decline, but our results showed that participants who maintained a healthier lifestyle factor were more likely than those with a less healthy lifestyle factor.” “This information may help us make personal choices that help prevent memory decline, and our results suggest that memory decline is significantly slower.” provides further evidence that is likely to be modifiable.”

Cognitive decline is likely influenced by several variables, Sabia and Singh-Manoux observed.

“The multifactorial risk paradigm introduced by the Framingham study led to a significant reduction in cardiovascular disease,” they noted. A similar approach should be taken in dementia prevention, by identifying the thresholds at which they matter and the age at which interventions are likely to be most effective, rather than on brain health.”

Jia and colleagues acknowledge that the study has some limitations. Lifestyle factors were based on self-reported data. In addition, memory was assessed on his one test only. Researchers note that the test does not comprehensively reflect overall memory function.

“However, the auditory verbal learning test is an effective means of memory assessment, and we used a composite score based on the four subscales of the auditory verbal learning test to represent memory status as much as possible,” they wrote. I’m here.