High BMI, urate levels reduce risk of dementia

Body mass index (BMI) and serum urate are independently associated with the risk of developing dementia, showing an inverse monotonic and dose-response relationship with the neurocognitive syndrome, a prospective cohort study has found.

The authors assessed the independent associations of BMI and urate, as well as their interaction, with the risk of developing dementia by analysing a cohort of 502,528 individuals derived from the UK Biobank, which included people aged 37–73 years with BMI and urate recorded between 2006 and 2010. They used electronic health records to determine the development of dementia at follow-up.

Of the participants, 2,138 developed dementia during a median follow-up of 8.1 years. Individuals who were underweight had a higher risk of dementia (hazard ratio [HR], 1.91, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.24–2.97) than those with a healthy weight.

The risk of dementia further decreased as weight increased, with overweight and obese participants being 19-percent (HR, 0.81, 95 percent 0.73–0.90) and 22-percent (HR, 0.78, 95 percent CI, 0.68–0.88) less likely to develop dementia than those with a normal weight.

Individuals in the highest quintile of urate also had a reduced risk of developing dementia (HR, 0.75, 95 percent CI, 0.64–0.87) compared with those in the lowest quintile.

A significant multiplicative interaction was observed between BMI and urate with regard to dementia (p_interaction=0.004). In addition, obesity bolstered the protective benefit of serum urate on the risk of developing dementia.

“Recent studies have suggested that a higher BMI and serum urate levels were associated with a lower risk of developing dementia,” the authors noted.