Association between Apoϵ4 allele and cardiometabolic and social risk factors with cognitive impairment in elderly population from Bogota

Associação entre o alelo Apoε4, fatores de risco cardiometabólicos e sociais com prejuízo cognitivo em idosos de Bogotá

ABSTRACT

Being an ϵ4 carrier in the Apoϵ gene has been suggested as a modifying factor for the interaction between cardio-metabolic, social risk factors, and the development of cognitive impairment.

Objective:

The main objective of this study was to assess the existence of such interaction in a sample of Bogota’s elderly population.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1,263 subjects older than 50 years. Each participant was diagnosed by consensus, after neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric evaluations, under a diagnosis of normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) according to Petersen’s criteria, or dementia according to DSM-IV criteria. Apoϵ was typified and an analysis of MoCA test was performed in each group carrying or not ϵ4 allele.

Results:

Our study showed that 75% were women with a median age of 68 years (interquartile range 62–74 years) and a median schooling for 6 years (interquartile range 4–12 years). Dementia was related to low education level of ≤5 years OR=11.20 (95%CI 4.99–25.12), high blood pressure (HBP) OR=1.45 (95%CI 1.03–2.05), and age over 70 years OR=7.68 (95%CI 3.49–16.90), independently of being or not an ϵ4 allele carrier. Diabetic subjects with dementia carrying ϵ4 allele showed a tendency to exhibit lower scores on the MoCA test, when compared with noncarriers’ diabetic subjects with dementia.

Conclusions:

The presence of ϵ4 allele does not modify the relationship between cognitive impairment and the different cardio-metabolic and social risk factors, except in diabetic subjects ϵ4 carriers with dementia who showed a tendency to exhibit lower scores of the MoCA test, when compared with noncarriers’ diabetic subjects with dementia.

Keywords:
Apoϵ4 allele; mild-cognitive impairment; dementia; MoCA test; educational status; cardiometabolic risk factors.