PMID- 19412468 OWN - NLM STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE DCOM- 20110517 LR - 20211020 IS - 1176-6328 (Print) IS - 1178-2021 (Electronic) IS - 1176-6328 (Linking) VI - 2 IP - 2 DP - 2006 Jun TI - Cognitive impairment in elderly women: the relative importance of selected genes, lifestyle factors, and comorbidities. PG - 227-33 AB - BACKGROUND: A variety of factors contribute to the development of cognitive impairment in elderly people. Previous studies have focused upon a single or a few risk factors. In this study we assessed and compared the significance of a wide variety of potential risk factors for cognitive impairment in postmenopausal women. METHODS: A total of 208 pairs of elderly women (mean age = 73.2 years) were examined in a cross-sectional case-control study. Each pair consisted of a case (with impaired cognition) and a control subject matched by age and educational status. Cognitive functions were determined using a modified version of the Blessed test. Participants were also subjected to a general clinical examination and they were interviewed to collect information on lifestyle practices and comorbid disorders. Genotypes for the apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon4, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val/Met, and brain-derived neurotropic growth factor (BDNF) Val/Met polymorphisms were determined. Data were analyzed by conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: We identified a set of risk factors for age-related cognitive impairment. A statistical model for assessment of the importance of these factors was constructed. The factors in this model were physical exercise (odds ratio [OR] = 0.50, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.32-0.78), regular alcohol consumption (OR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.29-0.83), metabolic syndrome (OR = 2.83, 95% CI = 1.26-6.39), depression (OR = 3.24, 95% CI = 1.28-8.22), and the APOE epsilon4 allele (OR = 1.76, 95% CI = 1.09-2.83). Also COMT genotype was present as a risk factor in the statistical model (p = 0.08). CONCLUSIONS: Lifestyle risk factors, comorbid disorders, and genetic factors contribute to development of age-related cognitive impairment. The two former groups of risk factors appear to be particular important in this respect. FAU - Rasmussen, Henrik Berg AU - Rasmussen HB AD - Research Institute of Biological Psychiatry, H:S Sct. Hans Psychiatric Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Roskilde, Denmark. henrik.berg.rasmussen@shh.hosp.dk FAU - Bagger, Yu Z AU - Bagger YZ FAU - Tanko, Laszlo B AU - Tanko LB FAU - Qin, Gerong AU - Qin G FAU - Christiansen, Claus AU - Christiansen C FAU - Werge, Thomas AU - Werge T LA - eng PT - Journal Article PL - New Zealand TA - Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat JT - Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment JID - 101240304 PMC - PMC2671785 OTO - NOTNLM OT - age-related cognitive impairment OT - comorbid disorders OT - genetic susceptibility OT - lifestyle choices OT - risk factors EDAT- 2006/06/01 00:00 MHDA- 2006/06/01 00:01 PMCR- 2006/10/01 CRDT- 2009/05/05 09:00 PHST- 2009/05/05 09:00 [entrez] PHST- 2006/06/01 00:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2006/06/01 00:01 [medline] PHST- 2006/10/01 00:00 [pmc-release] AID - ndt-2-227 [pii] AID - 10.2147/nedt.2006.2.2.227 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2006 Jun;2(2):227-33. doi: 10.2147/nedt.2006.2.2.227.