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High-sensitivity C-reactive protein and cognitive function in older women
Jennifer Weuve1, Paul M Ridker, Nancy R Cook
1Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. jweuve@hsph.harvard.edu
Insights
This study found no association between high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), a marker of inflammation, and cognitive function decline in older women. Further research is needed to clarify the role of inflammation in dementia development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Epidemiology
- Immunology
Background:
- Inflammation is a suspected factor in dementia development.
- Previous studies on inflammatory markers and cognitive function have yielded inconsistent results.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between plasma high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels and cognitive function in older women.
- To determine if hs-CRP, an inflammatory marker, is linked to cognitive decline.
Main Methods:
- Measured plasma hs-CRP levels in 4,231 older women (aged 60-90) from the Women's Health Study.
- Administered cognitive tests assessing general cognition, verbal memory, and category fluency.
- Utilized multiple linear regression to analyze cognitive scores across hs-CRP quintiles, adjusting for confounders.
Main Results:
- A wide distribution of hs-CRP levels was observed, with many participants showing high cardiovascular disease risk levels.
- No significant association was found between higher hs-CRP levels and poorer performance on cognitive tests.
- Mean cognitive scores did not differ between women in the highest and lowest hs-CRP quintiles.
Conclusions:
- The study found no evidence linking hs-CRP, a marker of inflammation, to cognitive function decrements in the studied cohort.
- These findings suggest that hs-CRP may not be a significant predictor of cognitive decline in older women.
Background:
Inflammatory processes may be involved in the development of dementia, although findings from epidemiologic studies directly examining inflammatory markers and dementia or its precursor, impaired cognitive function, are inconsistent.
Methods:
We measured plasma levels of the inflammatory marker, C-reactive protein, using a high-sensitivity assay (hs-CRP) in 4,231 older participants of the Women's Health Study, who provided blood samples between 1992 and 1996 when they were age 60 to 90 years. From 1998 to 2000, we administered a battery of 5 cognitive tests measuring general cognition, verbal memory, and category fluency. Using multiple linear regression, we compared mean cognitive test scores across quintiles of hs-CRP, adjusting for potential confounding factors.
Results:
There was a wide distribution of hs-CRP levels among these women, and a large proportion had levels considered to reflect a high risk of cardiovascular disease. We observed no suggestion, however, that higher hs-CRP levels were associated with poorer cognitive performance. For example, on a global score combining results of all the cognitive tests, mean scores among women in the highest quintile of hs-CRP did not differ from those in the lowest quintile (multivariable-adjusted mean difference = 0.04; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.02 to 0.11, P for trend across quintiles = 0.38).
Conclusion:
Overall, in these women, we found no evidence of a link between hs-CRP, a marker of inflammation, and decrements in cognitive function.
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