Dose-response relationship between the age at diagnosis of cardiovascular metabolic multimorbidity and cognitive impairment among middle-aged and older adults in China

Aims

The purpose of this study was to explore the dose-response relationship between the age at diagnosis of cardiovascular metabolic multimorbidity and cognitive impairment among middle-aged and older adults in China.

Methods

This is a secondary study using the China Health Retirement Longitudinal Study 2018(CHARLS 2018). The study included 1338 middle-aged and older adults. The middle-aged and older adults is defined as having cardiovascular metabolic multimorbidity if he or she has two or more of the five diseases (hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, stroke, and heart disease). We measured cognitive functions by evaluating situational memory capacity and mental status. The total cognitive function score ranges from 0 to 31. Participants defined cognitive impairment as a function of subject educational level: illiteracy<17, primary school<20, junior high school and above<24. Restrictive cubic splines were used to examine the shape of the association between the age at diagnosis of cardiovascular metabolic multimorbidity and cognitive impairment.

Results

The mean age was 67.72±9.96 years, with 52.0 % being female. Of the total sample, 79.1 % were cognitive impairment. When all covariates were adjusted, our study showed that the later the age of diagnosis of cardiovascular metabolic multimorbidity in middle-aged and older adults, the more cognitive impairment is exacerbated.

Conclusion

The later age of diagnosis of CMM in middle-aged and older adults, the higher the risk of cognitive impairment. This suggests that nurses should promptly emphasize the relationship between CMM and cognitive impairment to their patients in their daily practice and encourage patients to be screened for CMM as early as possible.