Impact of Mood Disorder History and Bone Health on Cognitive Function Among Men Without Dementia

Poor cognitive function, a major disabling condition of older age, is often considered a prodromal feature of dementia. High mortality and the lack of a cure for dementia have necessitated a focus on the identification of potentially modifiable risk factors. Mental and physical health conditions such as mood disorders and bone loss have been previously linked with poor cognition individually although their combined effect remains largely unknown.

Considering the multifactorial nature of dementia pathology, we investigated whether mood disorders, bone health and their interaction are associated with cognitive function in a population-based sample of men.

Four hundred and forty-two male participants were drawn from the Geelong Osteoporosis Study. Cognitive function was assessed using the CogState Brief Battery, which measured cognitive performance across four domains and was used to compute overall cognitive function. Mood disorders and hip bone mineral density (BMD) were determined using a semi-structured clinical interview and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, respectively.

Hip BMD (Bcoeff = 0.56, 95% CI: [0.07, 1.05], p = 0.025) but not mood disorder (Bcoeff = -0.50, 95% CI: [-0.20, 0.10], p = 0.529) was associated with overall cognitive function after accounting for potential confounders. Interaction effects were observed between the two exposures (Bcoeff = -1.37, 95% CI: [-2.49, -0.26], p = 0.016) suggesting that individuals without a mood disorder displayed better cognitive performance with increasing BMD, while those with a lifetime history of mood disorder displayed poorer cognitive function with increasing BMD.

These findings highlight the importance of exploring interactions among potentially modifiable health conditions associated with cognitive function.