Metabolic syndrome linked to cognitive impairment in older women

Washington, Mar 10 (ANI): Elderly women with metabolic syndrome are at an increased risk of cognitive over a four-year period, says a new study.

The researchers led by Dr Kristine Yaffe, from University of California, San Francisco, and the San Francisco Veterans' Affairs Medical Centre looked at 4,895 older women with an average age 66.2, who did not have cognitive impairment at the beginning of the study.

They found that of the 497 women who had the metabolic syndrome, 36 developed cognitive impairment during a four-year period, compared with 181 of 4,398, who did not have the metabolic syndrome.

Each additional component of the syndrome-such as abdominal obesity, high blood pressure and low HDL cholesterol levels-was associated with a 23 percent increase in risk of cognitive impairment.

"As the obesity and sedentary lifestyle epidemic escalates throughout the world, identification of the role of these modifiable behaviours in increasing risk for development of deleterious outcomes, such as cognitive impairment, is critical," the authors wrote.

"Future research should assess whether identification of cognitive impairment among patients with the metabolic syndrome or more aggressive clinical control of the factors that compose the metabolic syndrome might lessen the risk of developing cognitive impairment in elderly people," they added.

The findings are published in Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. (ANI)