BACKGROUND:

The Framingham Heart Study is a major epidemiological investigation of prospective relationships between risk factors for the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD risk factors) and CVD risk factor outcomes. The Framingham Study and other large, prospective studies have resulted in an extensive literature on the impact of CVD risk factors (including age) and CVD outcomes. Comparatively, there have been many fewer studies of the impact of CVD risk factors on cognitive functioning, and possibly no studies of the effect of objectively measured, competing risk factors on cognitive functioning.

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

Dr. Elias and colleagues used cardiovascular risk factor data from the Framingham Heart Study (N= 2,123) in a prospective design allowing them to relate CVD risk factors (including age and gender) to two outcome measures: (1) level of cognitive performance and (2) change in cognitive performance over a 10 year longitudinal study period. The overall goals were to determine the best multivariate combination of biological and psychosocial risk factors for the prediction of lowered cognitive ability in middle-aged and elderly men and women, and to evaluate the relative impact of age, gender, and other biological and psychosocial risk factors on cognitive functioning.