Individuals who suffer heart attacks are more likely to suffer cognitive decline over time as they get older, according to a new study published in JAMA Neurology.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine conducted an analysis of six different large studies of older adults to determine whether those who had suffered heart attacks were more likely to experience cognitive decline than those who did not have heart attacks. The cohort study included 30,465 adults, with an average age of 64. Of those studied, 1,033 had one or more myocardial infarction (MI) events and 29,432 did not have an MI event.
Researchers found that individuals who had MI events or heart attacks did not experience sudden declines in cognition immediately after the event. However, individuals who suffered MI events experienced faster decline in cognition in the years following the heart attacks, and the decline was the equivalent of between six to 13 years of cognitive aging.
“This cohort study using pooled data from 6 cohort studies found that incident MI was not associated with a decrease in global cognition, memory, or executive function at the time of the event compared with no MI but was associated with faster declines in global cognition, memory, and executive function over time,” the authors wrote. “These findings suggest that prevention of MI may be important for long-term brain health.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 805,000 people in the U.S. suffer heart attacks every year. Researchers say their study highlights the importance of controlling cardiovascular disease risk factors to reduce the risk of a heart attack.
“Due to the fact that many people are at risk for having a heart attack, we hope that the results of our study will serve as a wake-up call for people to control vascular risk factors like high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol as soon as they can since we have shown that having a heart attack increases your risk of decreased cognition and memory later on in life,” Michelle Johansen, MD, PhD, an associate professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a news release.
Johansen said more research is needed to determine the exact relationship between heart disease and cognitive health in older adults over time.
“We have shown that preventing heart attacks may be one strategy to preserve brain health in older adults,” Johansen said in the release. “Now we need to determine what specifically is causing the cognitive decline over time.”
The research was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
