Factors associated with mild cognitive impairment in a population-based cohort

Dementia is currently a public health priority, covering about 8% of people over the age of sixty-five, 20% of the population over 80 years of age in the Western world, and it is expected that these prevalences will triple over the next 30 years. Encouraging early diagnosis and removing the modifiable individual risk factors and the environmental causes predisposing to dementia is a possible strategy for reducing the individual and social burden of dementia in current, aging society. In this regard, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is considered a transitional phase between the typical cognitive changes of normal aging and dementia [ ]. MCI is defined as the condition in which there is a cognitive deficit higher than expected in individuals matched for age and education level. However, this deficit does not significantly interfere with usual activities of daily living. The age-related decline of cognitive functions has been linked to different risk factors associated with genetics, environment, and lifestyle, including the traditional cardiovascular risk factors [ ]. Despite the importance of recognizing MCI, studies that investigated the prevalence and potential risk factors in the general population are scarce, and the role of risk factors for MCI that have been identified need to be confirmed in populations different from those that have been studied. Therefore, we evaluated the prevalence of MCI and the possible association with metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors in a comprehensive general population cohort that participated in the second evaluation, in 2015, of the Nutrition, Cardiovascular Wellness and Diabetes (ABCD_2) study (ISRCTN15840340). The ABCD_2 is a longitudinal observational single-center study of a cohort representative of the general population living in Palermo, the largest city in Sicily, Italy as previously described [ ]. The institutional Ethics Committee (Policlinico University Hospital) approved the study protocol, and each participant signed an approved informed consent form.