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The American Heart Association Life's Simple 7 and incident cognitive impairment: The REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study
Journal article   Open access

The American Heart Association Life's Simple 7 and incident cognitive impairment: The REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study

Evan L Thacker, Sarah R Gillett, Virginia G Wadley, Frederick W Unverzagt, Suzanne E Judd, Leslie A McClure, Virginia J Howard and Mary Cushman
Journal of the American Heart Association, v 3(3), pp e000635-n/a
11 Jun 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.113.000635
PMID: 24919926
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.113.000635View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY-NC-ND V4.0,  Open
url
https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.113.000635View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Aged American Heart Association Cognition Disorders - epidemiology Cognition Disorders - prevention & control Cognitive Dysfunction - epidemiology Cognitive Dysfunction - prevention & control Continental Population Groups - statistics & numerical data Dementia - epidemiology Dementia - prevention & control Female Health Promotion - methods Humans Incidence Male Middle Aged Odds Ratio Prospective Studies Risk Factors Risk Reduction Behavior Socioeconomic Factors Stroke - epidemiology United States - epidemiology
Life's Simple 7 is a new metric based on modifiable health behaviors and factors that the American Heart Association uses to promote improvements to cardiovascular health (CVH). We hypothesized that better Life's Simple 7 scores are associated with lower incidence of cognitive impairment. For this prospective cohort study, we included REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) participants aged 45+ who had normal global cognitive status at baseline and no history of stroke (N=17 761). We calculated baseline Life's Simple 7 score (range, 0 to 14) based on smoking, diet, physical activity, body mass index, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and fasting glucose. We identified incident cognitive impairment using a 3-test measure of verbal learning, memory, and fluency obtained a mean of 4 years after baseline. Relative to the lowest tertile of Life's Simple 7 score (0 to 6 points), odds ratios of incident cognitive impairment were 0.65 (0.52, 0.81) in the middle tertile (7 to 8 points) and 0.63 (0.51, 0.79) in the highest tertile (9 to 14 points). The association was similar in blacks and whites, as well as outside and within the Southeastern stroke belt region of the United States. Compared with low CVH, intermediate and high CVH were both associated with substantially lower incidence of cognitive impairment. We did not observe a dose-response pattern; people with intermediate and high levels of CVH had similar incidence of cognitive impairment. This suggests that even when high CVH is not achieved, intermediate levels of CVH are preferable to low CVH.

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136 citations in Web of Science
137 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
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