Life’s Essential 8 & cognitive function and decline - The Doetinchem Cohort Study

Background
• Cardiovascular health is closely linked to brain health
• The Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) score summarizes cardiovascular health (Figure 1)
• Longitudinal, sex-specific population data on LE8 and cognitive function and decline are scarce

Methods
• 1831 men and 1889 women: up to 5 repeated cognition measurements per participant
• Standardized domain scores (z-scores): global cognition, memory, flexibility, and processing speed
• The LE8 score (range 0-100) assessed through questionnaires and physical examination
• Linear mixed models with random intercepts and slopes (sex-stratified)
    • Sex-specific LE8 tertiles
    • Ten-point increase in LE8 score
• Level of cognitive function and cognitive decline

Key findings 
• Higher LE8 is consistently associated with better level of cognitive function in both sexes for most domains, with a clear dose-response pattern across the LE8 tertiles
• Higher LE8 is less often associated with cognitive decline
• The associations between LE8 and cognition are more pronounced in men than in women