Editors' note: Midlife cardiovascular fitness and dementia: A 44-year longitudinal population study in women

Abstract

“Midlife cardiovascular fitness and dementia: A 44-year longitudinal population study in women” investigated whether greater cardiovascular fitness in midlife is associated with a decreased risk of dementia in women. The authors found that women with high fitness had a lower adjusted hazard ratio for all-cause dementia and delayed age at onset of dementia compared with women with medium fitness. Commenting on the article, Kivimäki et al. believe that the results are overoptimistic. They explain that because of the small number of dementia cases, the results reported are unlikely to be robust. They support their argument by analyzing an alternative scenario with just 2 additional dementia cases in the high-fitness group, which would decrease the population attributable fraction to less than 60%. Hörder et al. agree that the results may be overoptimistic, but they justify the low number of dementia cases in the highest-fitness group as a consequence of the strong effect of high midlife fitness on dementia risk. They add that high fitness could be regarded as a sum of a number of beneficial factors related to dementia risk (e.g., genetics, exercise, diet, nonsmoking, and blood pressure). “Midlife cardiovascular fitness and dementia: A 44-year longitudinal population study in women” investigated whether greater cardiovascular fitness in midlife is associated with a decreased risk of dementia in women. The authors found that women with high fitness had a lower adjusted hazard ratio for all-cause dementia and delayed age at onset of dementia compared with women with medium fitness.