Association between apoε4 allele and cardio-metabolic and social risk factors with cognitive impairment in elderly population from Bogota

Abstract

Being an ε4 carrier in the Apoε gene has been suggested as a modifying factor for the interaction between cardio-metabolic, social risk factors, and the development of cognitive impairment. Objective: The main objective of this study was to assess the existence of such interaction in a sample of Bogota’s elderly population. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1,263 subjects older than 50 years. Each participant was diagnosed by consensus, after neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric evaluations, under a diagnosis of normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) according to Petersen’s criteria, or dementia according to DSM-IV criteria. Apoε was typified and an analysis of MoCA test was performed in each group carrying or not ε4 allele. Results: Our study showed that 75% were women with a median age of 68 years (interquartile range 62–74 years) and a median schooling for 6 years (interquartile range 4–12 years). Dementia was related to low education level of ≤5 years OR=11.20 (95%CI 4.99–25.12), high blood pressure (HBP) OR=1.45 (95%CI 1.03–2.05), and age over 70 years OR=7.68 (95%CI 3.49–16.90), independently of being or not an ε4 allele carrier. Diabetic subjects with dementia carrying ε4 allele showed a tendency to exhibit lower scores on the MoCA test, when compared with noncarriers’ diabetic subjects with dementia. Conclusions: The presence of ε4 allele does not modify the relationship between cognitive impairment and the different cardio-metabolic and social risk factors, except in diabetic subjects ε4 carriers with dementia who showed a tendency to exhibit lower scores of the MoCA test, when compared with noncarriers’ diabetic subjects with dementia.