Hypertension associated with increased risk of dementia

Dementia is a neurodegenerative disease associated with an impaired ability to think, remember, or make decisions. Since dementia has a long pre-clinical stage, early diagnosis is crucial.

Several modifiable vascular and non-vascular risk factors have been associated with over 40% of dementia cases. Among these, hypertension could be the most potentially modifiable vascular risk factor that affects individuals over 40 years of age.

Since hypertension is one of the main risk factors of dementia, its presence could be used to predict risk scores for the disease. Therefore, it is important to validate whether hypertension can be used to accurately predict the risk scores for dementia.

The current study indicated the use of this factor as a predictor of dementia risk, particularly in middle-aged populations. Taken together, the study findings provide important insights into the development of future intervention approaches that can be used to prevent dementia onset by improving blood pressure levels.

Source: Journal Hypertension Research