The Brain Care Score and its associations with cardiovascular disease and cancer

Abstract

Background The Brain Care Score (BCS) was developed in partnership with patients and practitioners to convey actionable knowledge to individuals everywhere that can motivate change in health-related behaviors and thereby reduce the risk of dementia, stroke, and late-life depression (LLD). Because diseases outside the brain share modifiable risk factors with dementia, stroke, and LLD, we investigated the associations of the BCS with other common age-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer. Methods Among all UK Biobank (UKB) participants with complete BCS data, we performed Cox proportional hazard regression analyses between the BCS at baseline and incident CVD (ischemic heart disease, stroke, and heart failure) and the three most common cancer types (lung, colorectal, and breast cancer), adjusted for sex and stratified by age. Results Among 416 370 UKB participants (mean age: 57 years; 54% female), 33 944 cases of CVD (8.8%) and 16 090 cases of cancer (4.0%) were identified over a median follow-up of 12.5 years. A 5-point higher BCS at baseline was associated with a lower incidence of CVD (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.57 [95% confidence interval {95% CI}: 0.55-0.59]) and lower incidence of the three most common cancer types (HR: 0.69 [95% CI: 0.66-0.72]). Conclusions A higher BCS at baseline is associated with a lower incidence of CVD and three cancer types. Although developed specifically as an actionable tool to guide individuals in reducing their risk of common age-related brain diseases, we show that it may also offer ancillary benefits, providing a single place to start for guiding individuals toward improving their chances of healthy aging more generally.