Hypertension is one of the most common chronic diseases. It is a major factor in heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and death. It is also a highly common risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia. In China, there are more than 270 million patients with hypertension, that is to say, about one in every three adults has hypertension. In recent years, the number of adolescent patients with hypertension has also begun to show a high trend. So, will the impact of the onset age and duration of hypertension on cognitive function be different?
Recently, researchers from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil published a paper entitled "hypertension, hypertension, and hypertension control association with decline in cognitive performance in the ELSA Brasil" in hypertension Cohort's research results show that both low-age hypertension and elderly hypertension can lead to different degrees of cognitive ability and memory decline, but the duration of the disease has no significant effect. In addition to the diagnosis of hypertension and the maintenance of hypertension cognitive function is also very important.
To determine the correlation between hypertension, prehypertension, age at diagnosis, course of the disease, blood pressure control, and cognitive decline, 7428 participants were recruited from six regions of Brazil, among whom 55.2% were women with an average age of 58.9 years. According to the results of unified blood pressure measurement and history of hypertension, they were divided into normal blood pressure (systolic blood pressure ≤ 120 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure ≤ 80 mmHg and no antihypertensive drugs), prehypertension (systolic blood pressure 120 mmHg-139 mmHg, or diastolic blood pressure 80 mmHg-89 mmHg and no antihypertensive drugs) and hypertension (systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg, or taking antihypertensive drugs).
Characteristics of baseline study participants
Statistics showed that 22.0% of the participants were in prehypertension, and 46.8% had hypertension. In patients with hypertension, 29.8% of them developed before the age of 55, and the median duration of hypertension was 7.0 years.
At baseline and two follow-up visits with an average interval of 3.8 years, the researchers assessed the participants' cognitive function, including memory, language fluency, reaction speed, attention, and other sub-indicators. After adjusting for covariates such as race, gender, and health status, it was found that both prehypertension and hypertension can lead to the decline of overall cognitive function. Hypertension is more related to the decline of memory, while prehypertension is related to the deterioration of language fluency.
Locus of cognitive ability scores of participants with different prevalence of hypertension
However, the better the blood pressure control, the slower the decline of cognitive function and memory. On the contrary, the decline of memory and cognitive ability of individuals without blood pressure control is more rapid.
Cognitive ability score trajectories of participants with different hypertension diagnosis age and control status
Also, the decline of cognitive function is related to the age of diagnosis of hypertension. It is found that patients younger than 55 years old are more likely to have a sharp decline in memory when hypertension is diagnosed, while patients with the age of diagnosis equal to or greater than 55 years old are related to the decline of memory and overall cognitive ability. However, there was no significant correlation between the duration of hypertension and the decline of any index of cognitive function. This also shows that even if the duration of the disease is very short, high blood pressure may also affect a person's cognitive decline speed!
Sandhi Maria, the corresponding author of the study "In addition to other proven benefits of blood pressure control, our findings highlight the importance of diagnosing and controlling hypertension in any age group to prevent or slow cognitive decline, and the need to maintain lower blood pressure levels throughout life, because even in prehypertension can lead to cognitive decline," Barreto said
