High waist, low calf circumferences up cognitive impairment risk in older adults

Incident cognitive impairment seems higher among older adults with high waist circumference (WC) and low calf circumference (CC), suggests a study.

Moreover, waist-calf circumference ratio (WCR) shows a relatively stronger relation with cognitive impairment compared with each circumference, which suggests that maintaining both higher lean mass and lower central fat helps prevent cognitive impairment in older adults.

The study included 3,312 participants (mean age 81.8 years) who were free of cognitive impairment (Chinese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE] scores ≥24 points) in the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey.

Cognitive impairment, the primary outcome, was defined as MMSE scores <24 points at the exit visit. Secondary outcomes included incident cognitive decline, defined as a reduction of MMSE scores 3 points at the exit visit, and incident decline in different cognitive domains, defined as a reduction of MMSE scores in the domain ≥15 percent at the exit visit.

Of the participants, 565 (17.1 percent) developed incident cognitive impairment over a median 3.6 years of follow-up.

Overall, higher WC (≥89 cm [fourth quartile] vs <75 cm [first quartile]: adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.56, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.19‒2.04) and higher WCR (≥2.9 [fourth quartile] vs <2.4 [first quartile]: aHR, 1.96, 95 percent CI, 1.52‒2.52) significantly correlated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment. In contrast, higher CC (≥34 cm [fourth quartile] vs <28 cm [first quartile]: aHR, 0.44, 95 percent CI, 0.33‒0.59) correlated with a reduced risk of cognitive impairment.

Similar results were observed for the secondary outcomes. Of note, body mass index did not significantly contribute to the study outcomes.