The Importance of Stroke as a Risk Factor of Cognitive Decline in Community Dwelling Older and Oldest peoples : The SONIC Study

Abstract Background: Increasing older people make a cognitive impairment is a major health concerns among older and oldest people. Moreover, the stroke is a relevant contribution for cognitive decline and development of dementia.The study of cognitive decline focused on stroke as the important risk factor by recruiting older and oldest still lagging behind. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the importance of stroke as a risk factor of cognitive decline during three years in community dwelling older and oldest people. Methods: This study was longitudinal study with a 3-year follow-up in Japan.The participants were1,333community dwelling older and oldest people (70 years old = 675, 80 years old = 589, and 90 years old = 69). Data collected included basic data (age, sex, and history of stroke), vascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, atrial fibrillation, and current smoking), and social factors (educational level, frequency of going outdoors, long-term care (LTC) service used, and residential area). The Japanese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-J) was decline of ≥ 2 points was defined as cognitive decline. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association between stroke and other risk factors with cognitive decline during a 3-year follow-up. Results: The fit of the hypothesized model by multiple logistic regression showed that a history of stroke, advanced age, and greater MoCA-J score at the baseline were important risk factors, while the presence of dyslipidemia and a higher educational level were protective factors that were significantly correlated with cognitive decline during the 3-year follow-up. Conclusions: The cognitive decline after the 3-year follow-up was influenced by the history of stroke and advanced age, while greater MoCA-J score at the baseline was associated with decline of the score after 3-year, but it was not supposed to be risk.The protective factors were the presence of dyslipidemia and a higher educational level. Therefore, these factors are considered important and should be taken into consideration when searching for creative solutions to prevent cognitive decline after stroke in community dwelling older and oldest people.