Healthcare News

Midlife obesity dementia risk factor
12/10/2005
People who are obese while middle aged have an increased risk of developing dementia in later life, according to new research.

People who were obese when they were middle-aged are at an increased risk of developing dementia in later life, according to a Swedish study.

Published in the October issue of Archives of Neurology, the study examined the link between a person's midlife body mass index (BMI) and the risk of developing future dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

A team from the Karolinska Institute re-examined 1,449 participants from the previous Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) study for their BMI, a group of vascular factors and subsequent dementia or AD.

They found dementia and AD were more prevalent in those people with a higher midlife BMI, with half of participants registering a BMI of 25-30 (overweight) and 16 per cent showing a BMI higher than 30 (obese).

Of the participants, 61 were diagnosed with dementia and midlife obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol were all found to be significant risk factors.

Being overweight in midlife was not greatly associated with developing dementia.

?This study shows that obesity at midlife may increase the risk of dementia and AD later in life,? the authors wrote.

"Midlife obesity, high SBP, and high total cholesterol level were all significant risk factors for dementia, each of them increasing the risk around two times. Clustering of these vascular risk factors increased the risk of dementia and AD in an additive manner so that persons with all three risk factors had around a six times higher risk for dementia than persons having no risk factors,? they concluded.