TOPLINE:
Metabolic syndrome was associated with a 24% increased risk for young-onset dementia, defined as dementia before the age of 65 years, with stronger associations found in women vs men, younger vs older adults, and individuals with vs without depression, a new study showed.
METHODOLOGY:
- This nationwide population-based cohort study included data from more than 1.9 million participants aged 40-60 years (mean age, 49 years; 51% men) from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database who underwent health checkups in 2009. Mean follow-up was 7.8 years.
- 25% of participants had metabolic syndrome, which was defined as having three or more of the following characteristics: Excess belly fat, high blood pressure, high fasting blood glucose, increased triglycerides, and reduced levels of high-density lipoprotein.
- The primary outcome was incident all-cause young-onset dementia. Secondary outcomes included Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia.
- The analysis included confounders, such as age, body mass index, sex, activity level, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and comorbidities.
TAKEAWAY:
- During follow-up, 0.45% of all participants developed all-cause young-onset dementia.
- After adjusting for confounders, metabolic syndrome was linked to increased risk for all-cause young-onset dementia (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.24; 95% CI, 1.19-1.30), as well as young-onset AD (aHR, 1.2) and vascular dementia (aHR, 1.4).
- Women with metabolic syndrome had a greater risk for all-cause young-onset dementia than men (34% vs 15% increased risk). The risk was also greater in participants in their 40s vs 50s, nondrinkers vs drinkers, individuals without vs with obesity, and individuals with vs without depression.
- Each individual component of metabolic syndrome was associated with increased risk for young onset dementia; participants with all five components had a 70% increased risk (aHR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.5-1.9).
IN PRACTICE:
“Our findings suggest that lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome, such as eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight, quitting smoking, and reducing stress, may help reduce the risk of young-onset dementia,” study investigator Minwoo Lee, MD, PhD, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Anyang, South Korea, said in a press release.
“Future research that follows people over longer periods of time and uses brain scans to look for biomarkers of dementia is needed to confirm and expand upon our findings,” Lee added.
SOURCE:
This study was led by Jeong-Yoon Lee, MD, Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea. It was published online on April 23 in Neurology.
LIMITATIONS:
Key risk factors for young-onset dementia, including APOE ε4 alleles and variations in the amyloid precursor protein, were not included in the analysis. The reliance on administrative claims data for identifying dementia cases and other covariates may have led to potential misclassification. The study’s observational design prevented the establishment of causality, and generalizability was limited to the Korean population. This study also lacked longitudinal updates of metabolic syndrome status, neuroimaging biomarkers, and behavioral or environmental factors. Self-reported data and missing variables may have also introduced bias, and important metrics such as systolic blood pressure were omitted from the analysis.
DISCLOSURES:
This study was supported by the Korean National Research Foundation. The investigators reported no relevant conflicts of interest.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.