In a new study from Duke Kunshan University, researchers found that a healthier lifestyle is linked to a lower risk of cognitive impairment in older people and that this link does not depend on whether a person carries a particular form of the gene APOE.
The APOE gene comes in several different forms, and people with a form known as APOE ε4 have an increased risk of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.
Previous research has also linked cognitive function to lifestyle factors, such as smoking, exercise, and diet.
However, it has been unclear whether the benefits of a healthy lifestyle are affected by APOE ε4, particularly for adults over 80 years of age.
In the study, the team examined data from 6,160 adults aged 80 or older.
They found that participants with healthy lifestyles or intermediately healthy lifestyles were much less likely to have cognitive impairment than those with an unhealthy lifestyle, by 55% and 28%, respectively.
In addition, participants with APOE ε4 were 17% more likely to have cognitive impairment than those with other forms of APOE.
A previous study suggested that in individuals at low and intermediate genetic risk, favorable lifestyle profiles are related to a lower risk of dementia compared to unfavorable profiles.
But these protective associations were not found in those at high genetic risk.
However, the current study showed the link between lifestyle and cognitive impairment did not vary significantly based on APOE ε4 status which represented the genetic dementia risk.
This suggests that maintaining a healthier lifestyle could be important for maintaining cognitive function in adults over 80 years of age, regardless of genetic risk.
This study emphasized the importance of a healthy lifestyle on cognitive health.
While further research will be needed to validate these findings among the different populations, this study could help inform efforts to boost cognitive function for the oldest of adults.
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The study is published in PLOS Medicine. One author of the study is Xurui Jin.
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