Abstract
Purpose: This study sought to evaluate midlife hypertension and hypercholesterolemia in relation to cognitive function later in life among black women.
Methods: Participants were drawn from the Nurses' Health Study and the Women's Health Study databases. In these studies, health professionals reported health information by questionnaire at baseline and at regular follow-up intervals, including diagnoses of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, or both; and they completed telephone-based cognitive assessments later in life. Multivariable-adjusted linear regression models were used to estimate mean differences in global cognition and executive function scores, comparing women with and without a history of hypertension at midlife and women with and without a history of hypercholesterolemia at midlife.
Results: Data for 363 black female health professionals were analyzed. Those with a history of hypertension or hypercholesterolemia at midlife did not have lower global cognition and executive function scores later in life compared with those without such a history, although there were trends in this direction.
Conclusion: In the study sample, a history of hypertension or hypercholesterolemia at midlife was not related to worse cognitive function in later life. But there was a suggestive pattern of trends that warrants further exploration in larger studies.