People With Hypertension Have A Higher Risk Of Thinking And Learning Difficulties
11 Dec 2007
If an elderly person suffers from high blood pressure (hypertension) he/she has a higher risk of experiencing thinking and learning difficulties (mild cognitive impairment), according to an article published in Archives of Neurology (JAMA/Archive), December issue.
The researchers wrote “Mild cognitive impairment has attracted increasing interest during the past years, particularly as a means of identifying the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease as a target for treatment and prevention.”
Approximately 9.9 out of every 1,000 elderly people who do not have dementia eventually develop some kind of mild cognitive impairment every year. 10-12% of these people go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease each year, compared to 1-2% of the general population.
Christiane Reitz, M.D., Ph.D., Columbia University Medical Center, New York and team collected data on 918 Medicare recipients from 1992 through to 1994, average age 76.3 – none of them had mild cognitive impairment at the beginning of the study. All of them had an initial interview and physical examination. They also had a cognitive function test. They were followed-up every 18 months for 4.7 years (average). Those who went on to develop mild cognitive impairment had low cognitive scores and difficulties with memory – however, they were still able to carry out their normal daily activities; none of them were diagnosed with dementia.
During the 4.7-year follow-up period, 334 of them developed mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 160 of whom had amnestic* mild cognitive impairment, and 174 had non-amnestic* mild cognitive impairment.
* With amnestic mild cognitive impairment there is significant memory loss, while with non-amnestic mild cognitive impairment there isn’t.
High blood pressure appears to be linked to a raised risk of mild cognitive impairment.
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