Abstract
Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) is associated with increased rates of mortality and increased risk for developing dementia. Changes in brain structure and cognitive functioning have been reported within the literature. However, research examining cognitive performance in individuals with MetS is limited, inconclusive, and focuses primarily on older cohorts. As such, the effect of MetS on cognitive functioning earlier in the lifespan is unclear. This study aimed to investigate cognitive performance in young, middle-aged, and older adults with multiple metabolic and vascular risk factors in a sample of community dwelling participants (N = 128). Participants were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and self-report measures. As expected, older adults performed more poorly than young and middle-aged adults across most assessments. Relative to controls, individuals with MetS reported greater hunger and disinhibited eating. MetS participants performed more poorly on Color-Word Interference: Inhibition. Additionally, when weight was accounted for, there was a significant relationship between MetS and select executive functioning tasks in middle-aged adults. These findings suggest that aspects of executive functioning may be impaired in MetS and could be further impacted by excess weight in middle-age. Future studies aimed at investigating potential causal relationships between metabolic and vascular risk factors, disinhibited eating, and executive dysfunction may provide insight into effective intervention targets to prevent MetS.
Highlights
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a constellation of vascular and metabolic risk factors that are directly related to the development of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) [1,2,3]
There was a main effect of age group on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS): Self-control ([F(2,113) = 4.05, p = .02]; Table 2); Bonferroni analyses revealed that middle-aged adults had significantly higher scores on this measure as compared to older adults (S1 Table)
There was a main effect of metabolic status in which individuals with MetS had significantly higher scores on the Beck Depression Inventory—Second Edition (BDI), Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ): disinhibition, and TFEQ: hunger as compared to controls (BDI [F(1,107) = 4.81, p = .04], TFEQ: disinhibition [F(1,118) = 29.46, p < .001], and TFEQ: hunger [F(1,118) = 14.87, p < .001], Table 2)
Summary
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a constellation of vascular and metabolic risk factors that are directly related to the development of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) [1,2,3]. While the long-term deleterious effects of developing these conditions in young adulthood are not well-established, the presence of multiple vascular risk factors and MetS in middle-aged and older adults, increases the risk of CVD and mortality [5, 10], the risk of developing dementia [13,14,15,16], and has been reported to be associated with impairments in executive functioning [17,18,19]
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