Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Quantifying Tissue-Specific Proteostatic Decline in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: September 7, 2021
Midlife adiposity predicts cognitive decline in the prospective Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study
Leah H Rubin1, Deborah Gustafson2, Kellie L Hawkins2
1From the Departments of Neurology (L.H.R., C.A.M., N.S.), Psychiatry (C.A.M.), and Medicine (T.T.B.), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Department of Epidemiology (L.H.R., L.Z., L.P.J.), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD; Department of Neurology (D.G.), State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn; University of Colorado (K.L.H., K.M.E.), Aurora; Denver Public Health (K.L.H.), CO; Department of Neurology (J.T.B.), University of Pittsburgh, PA; Department of Medicine (J.E.L.), University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Department of Psychiatry (E.M.), Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL; and Department of Neurology (A.L.), David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. lrubin1@jhmi.edu.
Objective:
Obesity is a common, modifiable cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk factor. Among people with HIV, obesity may contribute to multisystem dysregulation including cognitive impairment. We examined body mass index (BMI) and central obesity (waist circumference [WC]) in association with domain-specific cognitive function and 10-year cognitive decline in men with HIV infection (MWH) vs HIV-uninfected (HIV-) men.
Methods:
A total of 316 MWH and 656 HIV- Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study participants ≥40 years at baseline, with neuropsychological testing every 2 years and concurrent BMI and WC measurements, were included. MWH were included if taking ≥2 antiretroviral agents and had HIV-1 RNA <400 copies/mL at >80% of visits. Mixed-effects models included all visits from 1996 to 2015, stratified by HIV serostatus, and adjusted for sociodemographic, behavioral, and clinical characteristics. At baseline and follow-up, 8% of MWH and 15% of HIV- men and 41% of MWH and 56% of HIV- men were ≥60 years, respectively.
Results:
Cross-sectionally, higher BMI was inversely associated with motor function in MWH and HIV- men, and attention/working memory in HIV- men. WC was inversely associated with motor function in MWH and HIV- men. Longitudinal associations indicated an obese BMI was associated with a less steep decline in motor function in MWH whereas in HIV- men, obesity was associated with a greater decline in motor function, learning, and memory. WC, or central obesity, showed similar patterns of associations.
Conclusion:
Higher adiposity is associated with lower cognition cross-sectionally and greater cognitive decline, particularly in HIV- men. Overweight and obesity may be important predictors of neurologic outcomes and avenues for prevention and intervention.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Magnetic Declination
Conservation of Declining Populations
Cognitive Dissonance
Predicting Molecular Geometry
Prediction Intervals
However, the point estimate is most likely not the exact value of the population parameter, but close to it. After calculating point estimates, we construct interval estimates, called confidence intervals or prediction intervals. This prediction interval comprises a range of values unlike the point estimate and is a better predictor of the observed sample value, y.
Language and Cognition

