Cognitive test performance and presence of subclinical cardiovascular disease in the cardiovascular health study

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship betwee n performance on a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests and th e presence of clinical, subclinical or no cardiovascular disease in an elde rly community-dwelling population. The results confirm previous reports of significant associations of age, education and gender with test performance . When performance was examined controlling for these variables, significan t associations of disease group were seen with five measures emphasizing sp eed of performance; Parts A and B of the Trail Making Test, the WAIS-R Digi t Symbol and Block Design subtests and category verbal fluency. These resul ts add to the evidence that, in addition to other health implications, card iovascular disease is related to cognitive functioning in the elderly even at subclinical levels. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.