Lacunar Infarcts Rather than White Matter Hyperintensity as a Predictor of Future Higher Level Functional Decline:...

We aimed to determine the associations between silent cerebrovascular lesions, characterized by lacunar infarcts and white matter hyperintensity, and future decline in higher level functional capacity in older community-dwelling adults.

For this observational study, we selected individuals from the general population of Ohasama, a rural Japanese community. Three hundred thirty-one participants who were free of functional decline at baseline and who were at least 60 years old underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging and answered a questionnaire on higher level functional capacity derived from the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index of Competence. Weassessed the relationship between silent cerebrovascular lesions with a decline in higher level functional capacity at 7 years using multiple logistic regression analysis adjusted for possible confounding factors.

During the follow-up, 22.1% reported declines in higher level functional capacity. After adjustment for putative confounding factors, the presence of silent cerebrovascular lesions (odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 2.10 [1.05-4.21]) and both lacunar infarcts (2.04 [1.05-3.95]) and white matter hyperintensity (2.02 [1.02-3.95]) was significantly associated with the risk of functional decline at 7-year follow-up. In subscale analysis, specifically lacunar infarcts were strongly associated with the future risk of decline in intellectual activity (3.16 [1.27-7.84]).

Silent cerebrovascular lesions are associated with future risk of decline in higher level functional capacity. Appropriate management of health risk factors to prevent silent cerebrovascular lesions may prevent higher level functional decline in the elderly population.