Abstract
BackgroundBody height is a marker of childhood health and cumulative net nutrition during growth periods. However, sex-specific associations between body height and cognitive impairment are not well known in northern rural China.MethodsWe assessed sex differences in the association between body height and cognitive impairment in a low-income elderly population in rural China. A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2014 to August 2014 to collect basic information from elderly residents aged 60 years and older in rural areas of Tianjin, China. Body height and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores were measured, and the relationships between these variables were assessed.ResultsA total of 1081 residents with a mean age of 67.7 years were enrolled in this study. After adjusting for age, educational attainment, smoking status, drinking status, and the presence of hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia, higher body height was found to be associated with a decreased prevalence of cognitive impairment in elderly men. Each 1-dm increase in height was associated with a 37% decrease in the prevalence of cognitive impairment. However, there was no significant association between body height and cognitive impairment among elderly women.ConclusionIn conclusion, shorter body height was related to cognitive impairment independently of age, educational attainment, lifestyle factors, and health-related comorbid factors among low-income elderly men in rural China. Accordingly, shorter elderly men may be targeted for effective dementia prevention in rural China.
Highlights
Body height is a marker of childhood health and cumulative net nutrition during growth periods
Associations between cognitive impairment and risk factors by sex in the univariate analysis Cognitive impairment was related to older age, lower educational attainment, and higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) in both men and women
Height and waist circumference (WC) were associated with cognitive impairment in men (Table 2)
Summary
Body height is a marker of childhood health and cumulative net nutrition during growth periods. Sex-specific associations between body height and cognitive impairment are not well known in northern rural China. According to the World Alzheimer Report 2016, there were approximately 47 million patients with dementia worldwide, and this number is estimated to increase to more than 131 million by 2050. Qi et al Biology of Sex Differences (2021) 12:65 costs of dementia worldwide were approximately 604 billion US dollars in 2010 [3]. The number of people living with dementia in China was approximately 10 to 12 million in 2014, which is the largest population worldwide and accounts for 25% of the total dementia population [5]. In China, the total costs of dementia were estimated to be 248.71 billion US dollars in 2020, posing a huge economic and social burden [5]
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