Middle-Aged Smokers Face Higher Risk for Dementia

Middle-aged smokers are far more likely to report having memory loss and confusion than nonsmokers, according to researchers at Ohio State University.

What to know:

Using data on smoking from the national 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System allowed a simple assessment of potential neurologic changes that could be easily done routinely, and at younger ages than we typically start to see cognitive declines that rise to the level of a diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease or dementia.
A comparison of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) between current smokers, recent former smokers, and those who had quit years earlier found that middle-aged smokers are far more likely to report having memory loss and confusion than nonsmokers.
The prevalence of SCD among smokers was almost twice that of nonsmokers while those who quit smoking more than a decade before the survey had a cognitive decline prevalence just slightly above the nonsmoking group.
The most significant link to smoking cessation's neurologic influence was in the 45-59 age group, suggesting that even quitting at that stage of life may have a benefit for cognitive health.
Quitting smoking is good not just for respiratory and cardiovascular reasons, but to help preserve neurologic health — and the earlier one quits smoking, the greater the overall health benefits and the lower the likelihood of cognitive decline.

This is a summary of the article, "Relation Between Smoking Status and Subjective Cognitive Decline in Middle Age and Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Data," published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease on December 21, 2022. The full article can be found on j-alz.com .

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Cite this: Middle-Aged Smokers Face Higher Risk for Dementia - Medscape - Feb 27, 2023.

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