Further evidence of a lack of interaction between <em>APOE </em>and late-life blood pressure in predicting cognitive decline: The PATH Through Life Study — ASN Events

Further evidence of a lack of interaction between APOE and late-life blood pressure in predicting cognitive decline: The PATH Through Life Study (#211)

Shea Andrews 1 , Debjani Das 1 , Kaarin Anstey 2 , Simon Easteal 1
  1. JCSMR, ANU, Canberra , ACT, Australia
  2. CRAHW, ANU, Canberra, ACT, Australia

The apolipoprotien E(APOE) *e4 allele12  and hypertension34  are two of the most prevalent genetic and environmental risk factors associated with cognitive decline in latter life.Genetic and environmental risk factors, however, do not act in isolation and interactions between these risk factors may modify the rate of cognitive decline5 . The present analysis examines whether the APOE *e4 allelemoderates the association between late-life high blood pressure and cognition in later life. We tested whether and interaction between the blood pressure variables hypertension or mean arterial pressure and APOE genotype was associated with greater cognitive decline in early old age. Cognitive function was assed at three time points over a period of 8 years in 1,741 cognitively normal community-dwelling adults aged 60-64 years at baseline. Using multilevel models it was found that APOE genotype did moderate the association between late-life high blood pressure on some cognitive tests, however, the inclusion of the interaction term either did not significantly improve model fit or explain any additional variation in the models. These results suggest that APOE genotype does not moderate the association between late-life blood pressure and cognition in latter life.

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