Cumulative Cognitive Reserve Tied to Dementia Risk

LOS ANGELES — Higher scores on a measure of cumulative lifetime cognitive reserve reduced dementia risk even in the presence of brain pathologies, researchers reported here. Older adults with the highest levels of lifespan cognitive reserve had a 39% lower risk of dementia than those with the lowest levels — and dementia risk was less for these people even if they had Alzheimer’s or vascular pathology, reported Xiuying Qi, PhD, and Weili Xu, MD, PhD, of Tianjin Medical University in China, and colleagues at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC). The study was published simultaneously in JAMA Neurology . Cognitive reserve has been proposed as a compensatory mechanism to explain why some people maintain better cognitive function with age-related brain changes or disease-related pathologies, noted co-author Hui Wu, also of Tianjin Medical University. In much research, "one reserve-enhancing factor during a certain time period alone — such as education, social, or cognitive activities — has been considered as a proxy measure of cognitive reserve," Wu told MedPage Today . "However, emerging evidence has suggested that cognitive reserve is an active construct which develops from continued life experiences." "Our findings suggest that accumulative educational and mentally-stimulating activities enhancing cognitive reserve might be a feasible strategy to prevent dementia, even in people with high Alzheimer’s disease or vascular pathologies," she added. To create a cumulative cognitive reserve measurement that spanned a lifetime, the researchers collected data about mental and social activities from 1,602 participants in the Rush University Memory and Aging Project , an ongoing community-based prospective cohort study. The average age of participants was nearly 80 and most participants (75.9%) were women. The researchers constructed a lifespan cognitive reserve score that incorporated education, cognitive activities in early, mid-, and late life, social activity in late life, and social networks late […]

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