Favorable Cardiovascular Health at Young and Middle Ages and Dementia in Older Age—The CHA Study

Background Data are sparse on the association of cardiovascular health (CVH) in younger/middle age with the incidence of dementia later in life. Methods and Results We linked the CHA (Chicago Heart Association Detection Project in Industry) study data, assessed in 1967 to 1973, with 1991 to 2010 Medicare and National Death Index data. Favorable CVH was defined as untreated systolic blood pressure/diastolic blood pressure ≤120/≤80 mm Hg, untreated serum total cholesterol <5.18 mmol/L, not smoking, bone mass index <25 kg/m2, and no diabetes mellitus. International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD‐9) codes and claims dates were used to identify the first dementia diagnosis. Cox models were used to estimate hazard ratios of incident dementia after age 65 years by baseline CVH status. Among 10 119 participants baseline aged 23 to 47 years, 32.4% were women, 9.2% were black, and 7.3% had favorable baseline CVH. The incidence rate of dementia during follow‐up after age 65 was 13.9%. After adjustme...