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Boomers Beware
Senior Citizens Who Were Fat in Midlife More at Risk
for Alzheimer’s
 Oct. 11, 2005 - Individuals who were obese at
midlife had an increased risk for dementia later in life compared to
individuals of normal weight, according to an article in the October
issue of the Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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Oct. 10, 2005 – A new study confirms indications
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Obesity is on the rise all over the world and is
related to vascular diseases, which may be linked to dementia and
Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to background information in the
article. However, the link between obesity and dementia risk has not
been extensively studied and long-term follow-up studies performed thus
far have yielded somewhat conflicting results.
Miia Kivipelto, M.D., Ph.D., from the Karolinska
Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues re-examined participants
in the Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging, and Dementia (CAIDE) study to
investigate the relationship between midlife body mass index (BMI;
weight in kilograms divided by square of height in meters) and a group
of vascular risk factors, and subsequent dementia and AD.
Participants in the CAIDE study were derived from
random, population-based samples previously studied in a survey carried
out in 1972, 1977, 1982, or 1987. After an average follow-up of 21
years, 1,449 individuals aged 65 to 79 years participated in the 1998
re-examination.
The researchers discovered dementia and AD to be
prevalent significantly more among those with a higher midlife BMI.
One-third of the participants had a BMI lower than 25 (normal weight),
half had a BMI from 25 to 30 (overweight), and the remaining 16 percent
had a BMI higher than 30 (obese) at midlife. A history of heart attack
and diabetes mellitus were more prevalent in those with the highest
midlife BMI.
A total of 61 participants were diagnosed as having
dementia, and 48 of them fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for
Alzheimer's disease.
Midlife obesity, high systolic blood pressure, and
high total cholesterol level were all significant risk factors for
late-life dementia. Being overweight in midlife was not significantly
associated with dementia later in life.
"This study shows that obesity at midlife may
increase the risk of dementia and AD later in life," the authors write.
"...midlife obesity, high SBP, and high total cholesterol level were all
significant risk factors for dementia, each of them increasing the risk
around two times.
Clustering of these vascular risk factors increased
the risk of dementia and AD in an additive manner so that persons with
all three risk factors had around a six times higher risk for dementia
than persons having no risk factors."
Editor's Note: This study was supported by the
Aging Program of the Academy of Finland, Helsinki; EVO grants from the
Kuopio University Hospital, Kupio, Finland; Academy of Finland grants
(Dr. Kivipelto); and the Gamla Tjänarinnor Foundation (Dr. Kivipelto),
grant from the Swedish Coucil for Working Life and Social Research, and
the SADF (Insamligsstiftelsen för Alzheimeroch Demensforskning)
(co-author, Ms. Ngandu), Stockholm.
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