Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2005 Sep 27;65(6):870-5.
doi: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000176057.22827.b7.

Effect of smoking and time on cognitive function in the elderly without dementia

Christiane Reitz  1 , Jose Luchsinger, Ming-Xin Tang, Richard Mayeux
Affiliations

Effect of smoking and time on cognitive function in the elderly without dementia

Christiane Reitz et al. Neurology. .

Abstract

Objective: To examine the association between smoking and changes in cognitive function over time in elderly persons without dementia.

Methods: The results of neuropsychological tests grouped into domains of memory, abstract-visuospatial, and language, from several intervals over a 5-year period in 791 elderly patients without dementia or cognitive impairment. Smoking history was categorized as never, current, or past smokers and related to the slope of performance in each cognitive domain using generalized estimating equations.

Results: Performance in all cognitive domains declined over time. Memory performance declined more rapidly among current smokers aged >75 years than in nonsmokers similar in age, including those who never smoked or had quit smoking. The effect was stronger among those without an APOE-epsilon4 allele. There was no association between smoking and performance in any cognitive domain in persons aged <75 years, and there was no association between past smoking and performance on any of the three cognitive factors at any time interval in either age group.

Conclusion: Current smokers aged >75 years perform more poorly on cognitive tests and appear to decline in memory more rapidly than their peers who do not smoke, especially if they lack the APOE-epsilon4 allele. Smoking does not affect cognitive performance in those persons aged <75 years.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Description of sample size.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Fratiglioni L, De Ronchi D, Aguero-Torres H. Worldwide prevalence and incidence of dementia. Drugs Aging. 1999;15(5) - PubMed
    1. Howard G, Wagenknecht LE, Burke GL, et al. Cigarette smoking and progression of atherosclerosis: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. Jama. 1998;279(2) 1914. - PubMed
    1. McGill HC., Jr. Smoking and the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Adv Exp Med Biol. 1990;273 - PubMed
    1. Launer LJ, Andersen K, Dewey ME, et al. Rates and risk factors for dementia and Alzheimer's disease: results from EURODEM pooled analyses. EURODEM Incidence Research Group and Work Groups. European Studies of Dementia. Neurology. 1999;52(1) 1901. - PubMed
    1. Merchant C, Tang MX, Albert S, Manly J, Stern Y, Mayeux R. The influence of smoking on the risk of Alzheimer's disease. Neurology. 1999;52(7) 1922. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources