An Epidemiological Study On Athersclerosis Risk Factors Of Cognitive Impairment In The Retired Soldiers

Background With a prolonging longevity of human beings, senile dementia is becoming to be a jeopardy to the mental and physical health of the elderly populations as one of the most important neurological disorders. Prevention of cognitive impairement (CI) including Alzheimer's disease (AD) has turned into a major public health challenge. In recent years, more and more epidemiology and laboratory evidences discovered the multiple risk factors which cause atherosclerosis (AS) to form, also be associated with the occurrence and development of AD. As the hypothesis of vascular mechanism on AD pathogenesis proposed, a whole-new prevention and therapy concept on joint-controlling the two major age-dependent diseases (AD and AS) on the same platform has recently been brought out. However, either in epidemiology investigations, or in the basic research fields, this concept is kept still to be controversial and far away practical and executable clinical tactics. Objectives To explore the relationship between AS risk factors and CI occurrences in the retired soldiers of Guangzhou Military Region, and to provide preliminary data for following medical intervention study on AS risk factors in CI population.Methods A cross-sectional epidemiological investigation was performed. After randomly sampling 796 from 2800 retired soldiers in 30 retired cadres located in Guangzhou, their demographic data and medical records were collected; MMSE and CDT were employed as a screening tool to evaluate their cognitive functions. According to the evaluation results, two groups were obtained. Among 551 cases with definite diagnosis,414 cases whose MMSE scores were above 26 and CDT scores were equivalent to 3 were grouped into the normal cognitive function (NCF) group; the other 137 cases were grouped into the CI group. The histories of hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, hyperlipidemia, and serum lipid,glucose,hs-CRP, blood routine examination were observed. Two sample t-test or the nonparametric test,chi-square test and unconditional Binary Logistic Regression Model was used in data analysis.Results 1. Univariate analysis results:Among all the observed indexes in the CI group and NCF group, age (P<0.001),hyperlipidemia courses (P=0.025),LDL(P=0.025),PBG (P=0.002),PLT (P=0.013), hyperlipidemia history (P=0.009) showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups.2. Multivariate analysis results:(1) Unconditional Binary Logistic Regression Model analysis found that age (OR=5.875;P<0.0001),serum TC levels (OR=0.596;P=0.020),PBG (OR=1.501;P=0.004),PLT (OR=0.340;P=0.025) were the statistically significant variables.(2) Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that age (Beta=-0.391;P<0.0001),hyperlipidemia history (Beta=0.092;P =0.02),WBC (Beta=-0.142;P=0.005),FBG (Beta=-0.092; P=0.04) were the statistically significant variables when MMSE score as a dependent variable. Among all indexes in the study, age provided the greatest contribution to CI occurrence, and MMSE scores declined with aging (r=-0.389;P<0.0001).The CI incidence in the over 80 years-old population was 1.5 times over than in the over 65 years-old population.Conclusions In our study, age was the strongest risk factors in affecting CI occurrence, meanwhile the Hyperlipidemia history, high TC and LDL levels might play a protective role for elderly cognitive functions in this specific population, however, our findings may be affected by sample specificities and medical interventions. Diabetes history and blood glucose level showed a marginally positive influence on CI development.