Connecting Cardiovascular Disease and Dementia: Further Evidence

C ognitive impairment is highly prevalent in the elderly, andit accounts for a large part of the burden of disability and of the use of healthcare resources. The major types of dementia are Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia.1 For many years, atherosclerosis was not considered to play a role in Alzheimer disease. Etiologically, both dementias may, however, not be as different as has been proposed in clinical classifications of dementia.2 Indeed, Haring et al,3 in the article published in this issue of JAHA, reported that women aged 65 to 79 years with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS), after a median follow-up time of 8.4 years, tended to be at increased risk for cognitive decline compared to those free of CVD. Vascular disease, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure were ascertained via self-reporting. Specifically, women with myocardial infarction or othe