How Much Do Vascular Risk Factors Contribute to Dementia?

Because past studies have provided limited evidence about combinations of risk factors for dementia, these authors evaluated the contributions of hypertension, diabetes, and smoking measured in midlife and early late life to incident dementia occurring over 33 years in the prospective cohort study ARIC-NCS. They calculated population-attributable fractions of incident dementia from these vascular risk factors measured at different ages, adjusting for APOE status, age, and sex. They included as covariates race, education, alcohol, body-mass index, high-density cholesterol, total cholesterol, and physical activity. The analysis included almost 8000 participants 45 to 54 years old, some 12,000 participants 55 to 64 years old, and almost 7000 p…