Association of Life’s Simple 7 with incident dementia and its modification by the apolipoprotein E genotype

INTRODUCTION: There is limited and inconsistent reporting on the association between Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) and dementia in the elderly population.
METHODS: Based on the Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP), LS7 scores were estimated to assess cardiovascular health status. Associations between LS7 scores and incident dementia were investigated by Cox proportional hazards models.
RESULTS: Among 1987 subjects, 291 incident cases of dementia were identified over a median follow-up of 5.84 years. Compared with subjects in the poor cardiovascular health group (scores 0 to 5), those in intermediate (6 to 9) and optimal (10 to 14) groups had lower dementia risk, with the hazard ratio (HR; 95% confidence interval) being 0.74 (0.54 to 1.00) and 0.59 (0.38 to 0.91), respectively. These results were significant in apolipoprotein E genotype ε4 (APOE ε4) allele non-carriers but not in carriers.
DISCUSSION: Higher LS7 scores are protective for dementia, especially among the APOE ε4 noncarriers.