Abstract
Dementia is the supreme worldwide burden for welfare and the health care system in the 21st century. The early identification and control of the modifiable risk factors of dementia are important. Global-cognitive health (GCH) metrics, encompassing controllable cardiovascular health (CVH) and non-CVH risk factors of dementia, is a newly developed approach to assess the risk of cognitive impairment. The components of ideal GCH metrics includes better education, non-obesity, normal blood pressure, no smoking, no depression, ideal physical activity, good social integration, normal glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and normal hearing. This study focuses on the association between ideal GCH metrics and the cognitive function in young adults by investigating the Third Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) database, which has not been reported previously. A total of 1243 participants aged 17 to 39 years were recruited in this study. Cognitive functioning was evaluated by the simple reaction time test (SRTT), symbol-digit substitution test (SDST), and serial digit learning test (SDLT). Participants with significantly higher scores of GCH metrics had better cognitive performance (p for trend <0.01 in three cognitive tests). Moreover, better education, ideal physical activity, good social integration and normal glycated hemoglobin were the optimistic components of ideal GCH metrics associated with better cognitive performance after adjusting for covariates (p < 0.05 in three cognitive tests). These findings emphasize the importance of a preventive strategy for modifiable dementia risk factors to enhance cognitive functioning during adulthood.
Highlights
Dementia is the supreme worldwide burden for welfare and the health care system in the 21st century
This study focuses on the association between ideal Global-cognitive health (GCH) metrics and cognitive function in young adults, which has not been reported previously
After adjusting all covariates in model 4, these associations were all statistically significant, as the presence of each component of the ideal GCH metrics predicted a better performance of serial digit learning test (SDLT), symbol-digit substitution test (SDST), and simple reaction time test (SRTT) (p < 0.01)
Summary
Dementia is the supreme worldwide burden for welfare and the health care system in the 21st century. The estimated number of people with dementia will increase from 47 million in 2015 to more than 140 million in 2050 [1]. As dementia deteriorates in the patients, the care costs increase to accommodate the need of life dependence, including daily activity assistance and medical care. The estimated global cost of dementia was approximately 818 billion US dollars in 2015, which will keep increasing because of the increased number of people with dementia in the future [2]. The early identification and control of the modifiable risk factors of dementia are important. Cardiovascular health (CVH) factors, including stroke, elevated blood sugar, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and obesity, are wildly recognized as imperative hazard factors for cognitive function [3,4]. People with a higher number of ideal CVH metrics have a lower risk of dementia. We had reported a similar result that cognitive functioning is negatively correlated with the increased number of components of metabolic syndrome [5]
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