People who have one or more heart attacks during their lifetime may experience faster long-term cognitive decline, according to an NIA-funded study.. Heart attacks were not associated with cognitive decline immediately after the event. The survey results are JAMA Neurologysuggesting that heart attack is an important risk factor for cognitive decline, even after recovery from the heart attack itself.
A research team led by Johns Hopkins University set out to discover whether experiencing a myocardial infarction or heart attack is associated with subsequent changes in cognitive function. The researchers analyzed six NIH-funded longitudinal cohort studies of cardiovascular health conducted from 1971 to 2019: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the Coronary Artery Risk Development Study in Young Adults, and the Cardiovascular Health Study. We analyzed pooled data from the Vascular Health Study, the Framingham Offspring Study, and the Multi-Ethnic Study. Atherosclerosis research, and northern Manhattan research. When they entered these studies, participants were on average 64 years old and had no history of heart attack, stroke, or dementia. In addition to sharing their health records, they took cognitive tests that measured memory, reasoning, and decision-making skills over time.
For this new study, researchers analyzed data from 30,465 participants in a cohort study. They first identified 1,033 participants who had experienced a heart attack in their lifetime, then looked at their cognitive test scores in the years before and after the heart attack. Participants who had a heart attack generally had no change in cognitive function at the time of the event. But over the next few years, they experienced a faster decline in cognitive function than people who had never had a heart attack.
These results add to the growing evidence of a link between heart and brain health. Additionally, the findings may inform how health care providers monitor and discuss patients’ risk of cognitive decline after a heart attack. Future research could also examine how gender and race influence the relationship between heart attacks and cognitive decline.
This research was supported in part by NIA grants R01AG051827 and K01AG050699.
These activities are related to NIH’s Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia research implementation milestones.
- 1.F“Population Studies: Inclusion of a Non-Alzheimer’s Disease Cohort.”
- 9.M“Dementia of Multiple Etiologies: Establishing Presymptomatic Diagnosis and Biomarkers.”
reference: Johansen MC et al. Association between acute myocardial infarction and cognition. JAMA Neurology. 2023;80(7):723-731. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.1331.
