Hypertension may predict dementia in older adults with particular cognitive deficits

February, 2010

A large five-year study concludes that late-life hypertension doubles the risk of dementia in those with executive dysfunction only (but not for those with memory dysfunction alone or memory and executive dysfunction).

Midlife hypertension has been confirmed as a risk factor for the development of dementia in late life, but there have been conflicting findings about the role of late-life hypertension. Now a five-year study involving 990 older adults (average age 83) with cognitive impairment but no dementia, has found that dementia developed at around the same rate among participants with and without hypertension, among those with memory dysfunction alone and those with both memory and executive dysfunction. However, among patients with executive dysfunction only, presence of hypertension was associated with double the risk of developing dementia (57.7 percent of those with high blood pressure progressed to dementia, vs. 28 percent of those without). The findings suggest that efforts to control to hypertension should be especially targeted to this group.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/jaaj-hmp020410.php

Reference: 

[178] Oveisgharan, S., & Hachinski V.
(2010).  Hypertension, Executive Dysfunction, and Progression to Dementia: The Canadian Study of Health and Aging.
Arch Neurol. 67(2), 187 - 192.

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