Mild cognitive impairment common in hypertensive patients

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is common among patients with hypertension, reports a recent meta-analysis. Early screening is needed in this population to facilitate timely intervention.

“Hypertensive patients and clinicians should not only focus on blood pressure control but also pay more attention to evaluating cognitive impairment and improving the targeting of rehabilitation and management,” the researchers said.

Eleven studies were retrieved from the online databases of PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science, yielding a pooled sample of 47,179 participants, most of whom were over 60 years of age. Diagnostic tools used for MCI included the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Peterson’s criteria, and the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer’s Association (NIA-AA) criteria.

The overall pooled prevalence of MCI was 30 percent (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 25–35), with studies providing a range of rates from 11.5 percent to 66.6 percent. Prevalence tended to be higher in cohort vs cross-sectional studies (38 percent vs 28 percent) and in patients <60 years of age (vs other age groups: 44 percent vs 28 percent). Heterogeneity was significant for both subanalyses.

MCI among hypertensives was also found to be more common when the MoCA was used, as opposed to the NIA-AA, MMSE, or Peterson’s criteria tools (64 percent vs 18 percent, 19 percent, and 13 percent, respectively). Heterogeneity of evidence was likewise significant in this subanalysis.

Sensitivity analyses revealed no study that had outsized influence on the overall findings.