American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance

Although midlife hypertension has been confirmed as a risk factor for the development of dementia in late life, there have been conflicting findings about the role of late-life hypertension. 

Individuals with mild cognitive (thinking, learning and memory) impairment-the state between aging-related brain changes and fully developed dementia-may experience deficits in different domains. For instance, some have impairments only in memory function and are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, whereas those whose impairment follows a stroke or other vascular (blood vessel-related) event often experience executive dysfunction.

Researchers at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran  studied 990 older adults (average age 83) with cognitive impairment but no dementia.

Over a five-year follow-up period, dementia developed at approximately the same rate among participants with and without hypertension (59.5 percent of individuals with high blood pressure vs. 64.2 percent of those without). A similar pattern was observed among those with memory dysfunction alone and with both memory and executive dysfunction. However, among patients with executive dysfunction only, presence of hypertension was associated with an increased risk of developing dementia (57.7 percent of those with high blood pressure progressed to dementia, vs. 28 percent of those without).

Information posted by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.

Tags: aging, Alzheimer's disease, American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, dementia, long term care, long-term care insurance, statistics

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