This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Midlife obesity linked to dementia later in life
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Data recently published in the Postgraduate Medical Journal suggest an increased risk for dementia later in life among those with early to mid-life obesity.
Clare J. Wotton, BSc, and Michael J. Goldacre, FFPH, of the department of population health at the University of Oxford, evaluated 451,232 people with obesity to determine its effect on dementia risk. A control cohort of participants without obesity was also evaluated.
Participants aged 30 to 39 years admitted to the hospital with obesity had a relative risk (RR) of 3.5 for developing dementia compared with those without obesity (95% CI, 2.1-5.6). The RR was 1.7 among those whose obesity was recorded in their 40s (95% CI, 1.3-2.2; 1.5 among those in their 50s (95% CI, 1.3-1.7); and 1.4 among those aged 60 years or older (95% CI, 1.3-1.5).
The risk for developing dementia was neither increased nor decreased among participants aged in their 70s when diagnosed as obese. However, participants diagnosed with obesity when aged in their 80s had a lower risk for dementia (RR=0.78; 95% CI, 0.74-0.82).
Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia risk were increased among those whose obesity was first recorded between theages of 30 and 39 years (RR=5.4; 95% CI, 1.7-13.7 for Alzheimer’s disease and 5.6; 95% CI, 1.0-19.5 for vascular dementia). The risk for Alzheimer’s disease was not increased when the first record of obesity occurred between the ages of 40 and 59 years, or among those aged 60 years or older.However, vascular dementia risk was increased among those diagnosed between the ages of 40 and 59 years.
“In summary, the risk of dementia in people who are obese in early to mid-adult life seems to be increased,” the researchers wrote. “The level of risk depends on the age at which they are recorded as being obese (which may be an age or a birth cohort effect) and, while obesity at a younger age is associated with an increased risk of future dementia, obesity in people who have lived to about 60-80 years of age seems to be associated with a reduced risk.”
Disclosure: The study was funded in part by the English National Institute for Health Research.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts