Framingham Stroke Risk Profile and Lowered Cognitive Performance

Background and Purpose - The primary objective of this work was to describe the relationships between 10-year risk for stroke and multiple measures of cognitive performance for a large community-based sample of individuals who were free of clinical stroke and dementia at the time of risk assessment. Methods - Participants were 1011 men and 1164 women from the Framingham Offspring Study. The Framingham Stroke Risk Profile was used to assess 10-year risk of stroke. Using a cross-sectional design, we assessed 10-year risk of stroke, the predictor variable, and cognitive performance, the outcome variable, at examination 7 of the Framingham Offspring Study. Multivariable linear regression models were used to relate 10-year risk of stroke to cognitive tests measuring multiple domains of cognitive functioning. Results - With statistical adjustment for age, education, sex, and other correlates of both stroke and cognitive ability, an inverse association between increments in 10-year risk of stroke and cognitive performance level was observed for tests indexing visual-spatial memory, attention, organization, scanning, and abstract reasoning. Conclusions - In stroke- and dementia-free individuals, higher 10-year risk for stroke is associated with performance decrements in multiple cognitive domains.