1. Elevated Blood Homocysteine Increases the Risk of Incident Motoric Cognitive Risk Syndrome: A Two-Cohort Study.
- Author
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Cotton K, Ayers E, Jin Y, Beauchet O, Derby CA, Lipton RB, Katz M, Galery K, Gaudreau P, and Verghese J
- Subjects
- Humans, Male, Female, Aged, Risk Factors, Incidence, Cohort Studies, Longitudinal Studies, Proportional Hazards Models, Syndrome, Aged, 80 and over, Quebec epidemiology, Cognitive Dysfunction blood, Cognitive Dysfunction epidemiology, Homocysteine blood
- Abstract
Background: Motoric Cognitive Risk (MCR) syndrome, a predementia syndrome characterized by cognitive complaints and slow gait, may have an underlying vascular etiology. Elevated blood levels of homocysteine, a known vascular risk factor, have been linked to physical and cognitive decline in older adults, though the relationship with MCR is unknown. We aimed to identify the association between homocysteine and MCR risk., Methods: We examined the association between baseline homocysteine levels and incident MCR using Cox proportional hazard models in 1826 community-dwelling older adults (55% women) from 2 cohorts (Einstein Aging Study [EAS] and Quebec Longitudinal Study on Nutrition and Successful Aging [NuAge]). We calculated hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), for each cohort as well as stratified by sex and vascular disease/risk factors., Results: Median follow-up time was 2.2 years in EAS and 3.0 years in NuAge. Individuals with elevated baseline homocysteine levels (>14 µmol/L) had a significantly higher risk of incident MCR compared to those with normal levels in NuAge (HR 1.41, 95% CI: 1.01-1.97, p = .04), after adjusting for covariates. Our exploratory stratified analyses found that these associations were significant only in men with vascular disease/risk factors., Conclusions: Higher blood homocysteine levels are associated with an increased risk of developing MCR in older adults, particularly in men with vascular disease or vascular risk factors., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)
- Published
- 2024
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