Science

Jing Guo, PhD, Adam M. Brickman, PhD, Jennifer J. Manly, PhD, Christiane Reitz, MD, PhD, Nicole Schupf, PhD, Richard P. Mayeux, MD, Yian Gu, PhD

Introduction: There is limited and inconsistent reporting on the association between Life’s
Simple 7 (LS7) and dementia in the elderly population.

Methods: Based on Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP) study, LS7 scores were estimated to assess cardiovascular health status. Associations between LS7 scores and incident dementia were investigated by Cox proportional hazards models.

Results: Among 1987 subjects, 291 incident cases of dementia were identified over a median follow-up of 5.84 years. Compared with subjects in the poor cardiovascular health group (scores 0 to 5), those in intermediate (6 to 9) and optimal (10 to 14) groups had lower dementia risk, with the hazard ratio (HR; 95% confidence interval [CI]) being 0.74 (0.54 to 1.00) and 0.59 (0.38 to 0.91), respectively. These results were significant in Apolipoprotein E genotype ε4 (APOE-ε4) allele noncarriers but not in carriers.

Discussion: Higher LS7 scores are protective for dementia, especially among the APOE-ε4 noncarriers.