Investigating the Association of Inflammation Scores with Cognitive Function Public
Reddy, Ananya (Spring 2022)
Published
Abstract
Background: Mild cognitive impairment is a transitional stage between normal cognitive function and dementia. Previous research has investigated inflammatory markers in relation to cognition. However, individual inflammatory markers may not fully reflect the inflammatory state. As such, we aimed to assess the relationship between cognitive impairment using both individual inflammatory markers and composite measures of inflammation.
Methods: Participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Aging were used to investigate the cross-sectional (n=4228) as well two-year (n=3670) and ten-year (n=2604) longitudinal associations between inflammation at baseline and cognitive function. The association of memory, executive function, processing speed, and aggregate cognition was investigated with four biomarkers (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin, fibrinogen, and white blood cell (WBC) count), as well as with two composite inflammation scores. Inflammation scores were calculated by classifying individual inflammatory biomarkers into quintiles, which were then summed. IS1 incorporated CRP, ferritin, and fibrinogen, while IS2 incorporated CRP, ferritin, fibrinogen, and WBC count. Age, sex, education, marital status, occupation, prevalent CVD or risk factors, and smoking were included as covariates.
Results: Higher serum ferritin was associated with better memory (B = 0.11, S.E. = 0.06) at baseline and higher WBC count was associated with worse processing speed (B = -1.35, S.E. = 0.65) at baseline. No other markers were associated with cognitive function at baseline. In the longitudinal analyses, no markers were associated with cognitive function after adjustment. Neither inflammation score was significantly associated with cognition after adjustment for covariates in the cross-sectional or longitudinal analyses.
Conclusions: In this analysis, systemic low-grade inflammation does not appear to be significantly associated with cognitive function, either cross-sectionally or longitudinally.
Table of Contents
BACKGROUND 2
INTRODUCTION 8
METHODS 8
Participants 9
Measures 10
Statistical Analysis 13
RESULTS 14
Sample Characteristics 14
Cross-Sectional Analysis 15
Longitudinal Analyses 15
DISCUSSION 16
Strengths and Limitations 19
PUBLIC HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE 20
TABLES 21
Table 1. Participant Characteristics 21
Table 2. Cross-Sectional Associations 23
Table 3. Longitudinal Associations at Two Years Follow Up 24
Table 4. Longitudinal Associations at Ten Years Follow Up 25
DATASET ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 26
REFERENCES 27
APPENDICES 33
Appendix 1: Directed Acyclic Graph 33
Appendix 2: IRB Determination of Non-Human Subjects Research Form 34
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