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
. 2024 Sep 13:12:1385089.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1385089. eCollection 2024.

Risk factors for cognitive dysfunction amongst patients with cardiovascular diseases

Tunde Pal  1   2 , Laszlo Barna Iantovics  3 , Zoltan Preg  4   5 , Eniko Nemes-Nagy  6   7 , Kinga-Ilona Nyulas  8 , Dragos-Florin Baba  2   9 , Marta German-Sallo  5   10
Affiliations

Risk factors for cognitive dysfunction amongst patients with cardiovascular diseases

Tunde Pal et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The impact of cardiovascular diseases on cognition raises important research questions. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between demographic data, cardiovascular diseases, kidney disease and depressive symptoms on cognition.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of patients with cardiovascular diseases was performed. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was applied for cognitive evaluation. Based on MoCA three groups were defined: preserved cognition, mild, and advanced cognitive dysfunction (CD). Data were analyzed using Cronbach alpha (Cα) and McDonald's ω (Mω) for internal consistency. The Chi-square test, Cramer's V test, and correlation analyses were also applied.

Results: Of 628 patients, 55.2% had mild CD, and the mean age was 67.95 (SD 9.53) years. Cα and Mω were 0.7, indicating good internal consistency. We found a moderate positive correlation between depression and the severity of CD (r = 0.25, p = 0.0001). A weak association between CD and female gender (p = 0.016), atrial fibrillation (p = 0.03), stroke (p = 0.009), and a moderate association for age group (p < 0.0001), education level (p < 0.0001), smoking (p < 0.0001), and renal dysfunction (p < 0.0001) was found. Age ≥ 70 years, eGFR 30-59 mL/min/1.73m2 significantly increased the likelihood for mild and advanced CD, while smoking and > 9 classes decreased it. Female gender, history of atrial fibrillation, and stroke significantly increased the likelihood of advanced CD.

Conclusion: Mild CD was the most common in patients with cardiovascular diseases. Older age, lower education, being a non-smoker, and renal dysfunction were risk factors for both mild and advanced CD. Female gender, previous diagnosis of atrial fibrillation, and stroke are risk factors for advanced CD.

Keywords: Montreal Cognitive Assessment; atrial fibrillation; cardiovascular; cognitive impairment; older adult; risk factors; stroke.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The prevalence of mild and advanced cognitive dysfunction. The distribution of CD severity based on MoCA test results in different age groups. More than half of the participants, 346 subjects (55.2%) had mild cognitive impairment and 69 patients (11.0%) had advanced CD. CD, cognitive dysfunction.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Central illustration. In the study sample, the risk factors for advanced cognitive dysfunction were female gender, previous diagnosis of AF and stroke; older age, lower education, absence of smoking, and renal dysfunction for both mild and advanced cognitive dysfunction. AF, atrial fibrillation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Timmis A, Vardas P, Townsend N, Torbica A, Katus H, De Smedt D, et al. . European Society of Cardiology: cardiovascular disease statistics 2021. Eur Heart J. (2022) 43:716–99. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehab892, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vos T, Lim SS, Abbafati C, Abbas KM, Abbasi M, Abbasifard M, et al. . Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2019. Lancet. (2020) 396:1204–22. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30925-9, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Livingston G, Huntley J, Sommerlad A, Ames D, Ballard C, Banerjee S, et al. . Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the lancet commission. Lancet. (2020) 396:413–46. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30367-6, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Georges J, Miller O, Bintener C. Estimating the prevalence of dementia in Europe. Luxembourg: Alzheimer Europe; (2020).
    1. Rovio SP, Pahkala K, Nevalainen J, Juonala M, Salo P, Kähönen M, et al. . Cardiovascular risk factors from childhood and midlife cognitive performance the young Finns study. J Am Coll Cardiol. (2017) 69:2279–89. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2017.02.060, PMID: - DOI - PubMed