An US cohort study of religious sisters showed that many of them with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) never developed dementia, even reverted to normal cognition (NC) or experienced improvement without intervention. The study included 619 participants aged 75+ years, 472 were observed to have MCI at some point during the follow-up period. Of these 472, 143 (30.3%) experienced at least one reverse transition to NC, and 120 of the 143 (83.9%) never developed dementia (mean follow-up 8.6 years). In models adjusted for age group and APOE, higher levels of education more than doubled the relative rate (RR) ratio of reversion vs. progression. Novel cognitive reserve indicators were significantly associated with a higher adjusted RR of reversion vs. progression (higher vs. lower levels for English grades: RR Ratio 1.83; idea density: RR ratio 3.93; and grammatical complexity: RR ratio 5.78). The findings are consistent with previous reports. Knowledge of frequent reversion from MCI to NC may alleviate concerns of inevitable cognitive decline in those with MCI. Source: https://n.neurology.org/
