The relationship between signs of cardiovascular deficiency and cognitive performance in old age: A population-based study

The influence of cardiovascular signs (CVS) on cognitive performance was ex amined in 227 older adults not suffering from dementia between 75 and 96 ye ars of age who were sampled from the community. Participants received a com prehensive physical examination that included specific evaluation of curren t CVS, including dyspnea, cardiac murmur, and edema in Lower limbs. They we re administered tests of digit span, episodic recall and recognition, verba l fluency, and visuospatial skill. CVS were found to predict performance on tests of episodic memory and visuospatial skill, after the effects of age, education, gender, relevant drug use, and mood symptoms were controlled fo r. Although CVS accounted for relatively little general performance variati on, the findings are relevant to the understanding of normal variation in l ate-life cognitive performance. Finally, CVS increased with age and account ed for a sizable proportion of the age-related cognitive variation.