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Topical Area: Aging and Chronic Disease

Aging and Chronic Disease (Poster Session)

(P23-048-23) The Association Between Overall Cardiovascular Health Assessed by Life’s Essential 8 and Dementia Among Community-Dwelling Men and Women in the InCHIANTI Study of Aging

Monday, July 24, 2023
12:45 PM – 1:45 PM ET
Location: Poster Board 46

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Xin Li, MSPH

    PhD Student
    George Washington University
    Arlington, Virginia, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • YJ

    Yichen Jin

    Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University

  • SB

    Stefania Bandinelli

    Geriatric Unit, Azienda Sanitaria Firenze (A.S.F.)

  • LF

    Luigi Ferrucci

    Longitudinal study section, Translation Gerontology Branch, National Institute on Aging

  • TT

    Toshiko Tanaka

    Longitudinal study section, Translation Gerontology Branch, National Institute on Aging

  • ST

    Sameera A. Talegawkar, PhD

    Associate Professor
    Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University
    Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States

Disclosure(s):
Xin Li, MSPH: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.


Objectives: To examine the association between overall cardiovascular health (CVH), assessed by the new Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) metric, and dementia among community-dwelling older adults in rural Italy.

Methods: A secondary data analysis was performed using data from 928 InCHIANTI study participants (55% female) aged 65 years and older without dementia at baseline. Overall CVH was assessed by the updated LE8 metric that included health behaviors (diet, physical activity, smoking status, sleep duration) and health factors (body mass index, blood lipid, blood glucose, blood pressure). The LE8 score ranged from 0-100 and was categorized as “low CVH” (0-49), “moderate CVH” (50-79), and “high CVH” (80-100). For the purposes of these analyses, based on the data distribution, we collapsed the categories as “low CVH” and “moderate & high CVH”. Dementia was ascertained by a combination of neuropsychological testing and clinical assessment at each follow-up visit. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine associations between overall CVH and incident dementia later in life.

Results: After a median follow-up of 14 years, better overall cardiovascular health (moderate CVH and high CVH) was inversely associated with the risk of incident dementia (HR: 0.84, CI: 0.75, 0.96, p< 0.008). Compared to health factors, higher scores for the health behaviors, especially weekly moderate-to-vigorous physical activity time, were significantly associated with a lower risk of dementia (health behaviors: HR:0.84, CI:0.73-0.96, p=0.01; physical activity: HR: 0.62, CI: 0.53,0.72, p< 0.001).

Conclusions: Better overall cardiovascular health assessed by the Life’s Essential 8 metric was inversely associated with the risk of incident dementia among older adults. The beneficial clustering effect of cardiovascular health behaviors on dementia risk reduction suggests the adoption of a healthy lifestyle as an intervention strategy for dementia prevention.

Funding Sources: The InCHIANTI Study was supported as a “targeted project” (ICS 110.1/RS97.71) by the Italian Ministry of Health and in part by the U.S. National Institute on Aging (Contracts N01-AG-916413 and N01-AG-821336 and AG-020727), and by the Intramural Research Program of the U.S. National Institute on Aging (Contracts 263 MD 9164 13 and 263 MD 821336).