The Higher Life’s Simple 7 Scores, The Lower Dementia Risk Across Genetic Profiles

A study of incident dementia, midlife Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) scores and generated genetic risk scores (GRS) using genome-wide summary statistics of Alzheimer’s Disease showed that across strata of GRS, higher midlife LS7 scores were associated with lower risk of dementia in a US cohort. The study included 8,823 European Americans (EA) and 2,738 African Americans (AA) (mean age 54 at baseline) followed from 1987-89 to 2019. There were 1,603 cases of dementia among EA and 631 among AA during median follow-up of 26.2 years. Higher GRS were associated with higher risk of dementia (EA, hazard ratio [HR] per standard deviation 1.44; AA, HR 1.26). Among EA, higher LS7 scores were consistently associated with lower risk of dementia across quintiles of GRS, including the highest quintile (HR per point 0.91). Among AA, the associations between LS7 and incident dementia within stratum of GRS had the same direction as among EA, though wide confidence intervals and smaller sample sizes limited reliable inferences. It is known that higher LS7 scores are associated with lower risk of dementia in the general population. The study suggests that higher LS7 scores remain associated with lower risk of dementia across the range of genetic risk. LS7 is defined as the 7 risk factors, including control blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar, get active, healthy diet, lose weight and stop smoking, that people can improve through lifestyle changes to help achieve ideal cardiovascular health. Source: https://n.neurology.org/