Association of Heart Failure With Cognitive Decline and Development of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia.
Miyeon Jung, Liana G Apostolova, Sujuan Gao and 4 others
PMID 39137265WHAT IT FOUND
Older adults with heart failure had faster decline in attention, executive function and memory, and reached mild cognitive impairment or dementia sooner.
Risk of developing them was not higher once age, education, health factors and a dementia gene were considered.
Key findings
01Participants with heart failure had faster decline in attention, executive function and memory over follow-up, but not language.
02Heart failure was linked to more overall development of mild cognitive impairment or dementia (44.9% versus 34.4%), but after adjustment the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment or dementia among those starting with normal cognition was not significantly different.
03Among participants with normal cognition at baseline, those with heart failure reached clinically diagnosed mild cognitive impairment or dementia sooner (median 6.5 versus 11.6 years), and had higher 5-year conversion to dementia (26.8% versus 17.2%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Heart failure history was self-reported and not clinically diagnosed, so heart failure presence and severity were not confirmed. The study did not evaluate heart failure types such as reduced or preserved ejection fraction. The heart failure group was small (256 participants) and differed from the non-heart failure group at baseline in age, sex, education, blood pressure, comorbidities, medications, and mild cognitive impairment. Longer follow-up may have selected people with less severe heart failure and better baseline cognition, creating survivor effects. Other conditions that could affect cognition may not have been included. Missing data were excluded from analysis.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include a conflict-of-interest declaration; the article is listed as supported by NIH extramural research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that heart failure causes dementia or that treating heart failure will prevent cognitive decline. The adjusted risk of developing mild cognitive impairment or dementia from normal cognition was not significantly higher, and heart failure was self-reported without clinical severity data.