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High cynical distrust increased dementia risk

The risk for dementia was increased among older adults with high cynical distrust after adjustment for confounders, according to recent study findings published in Neurology.

Anna-Maija Tolppanen, PhD, from the department of neurology at the University of Eastern Finland, and colleagues evaluated 1,449 adults (mean age, 71.3 years; 62% women) to determine the association between late-life cynical distrust and incident dementia and mortality.

Cynical distrust was defined as the belief that others are mainly motivated by selfish concerns. Confounders included age, sex, BMI, systolic blood pressure, plasma fasting glucose, serum and total cholesterol, smoking, alcohol consumption, experienced health, retirement status and education. Follow-up was 8.4 years for dementia and 10.4 years for mortality.

Compared with participants with lower cynical distrust, participants with high levels of distrust tended to be older, retired, and had greater BMI, systolic BP and plasma fasting glucose. Poor health status and shorter education history also were associated with higher levels of cynical distrust. In addition, men and smokers were more likely to have high or middle levels of cynical distrust.

At second follow-up, compared with participants with normal cognition, those with dementia were older, had shorter education history and lower levels of systolic BP.

During the study period, mortality occurred among older participants with higher plasma fasting glucose and lower total cholesterol levels. Higher mortality was also associated with poor experienced health and low education.

When adjusting for age and sex only, incident dementia was not associated with cynical distrust. However, when adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors, incident dementia risk increased 2.54 times among participants with the highest levels of cynical distrust compared with participants with low cynical distrust.

“The findings of this study propose that psychosocial and behavioral risk factors may be modifiable targets for prevention of dementia,” the researchers wrote. “It may thus be possible to improve life quality by attempting to change people’s attitudes to a more positive direction. Furthermore, as the evidence on preventive measures is slowly accumulating, it is important to acknowledge personality as a factor that may modify the uptake of an intervention program. Confirming the association between cynical distrust and incident dementia necessitates replication studies in larger populations with longer follow-up outcomes.”

Disclosure: See the study for a full list of researchers’ financial disclosures.