AccScience Publishing / BH / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/bh.8426
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Dementia as a risk factor for coronary artery disease

Ram B. Singh1* M. A. Niaz1 Ajay Agarwal2 Aminad Magomedova3 M. A. Manal Smail4 Saibal Chakravorty5 Yana Danailova6 Ghizal Fatima7 Miroslav Dobrev3
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1 Department of Medicine, Halberg Hospital and Research Institute, Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
2 Department of Medicine, Fortis Hospital, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
3 Department of Population, Lomosonov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
4 Department Pharmacy, School of Medicine & Health Sciences, United Arab University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
5 Department of Medicine, Metro Multispeciality Hospital, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
6 Yana Nutrition Clinic, Sofia, Sofia City, Bulgaria
7 Chronobiology Laboratory, Era Medical College, Era University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Received: 6 January 2025 | Revised: 28 March 2025 | Accepted: 10 April 2025 | Published online: 10 June 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Western diet and lifestyle are known to predispose to low-grade chronic systemic inflammation, leading to dementia and coronary artery disease (CAD). It is hypothesized that dementia may also predispose individuals to CAD, just as it is well-established that CAD can predispose individuals to dementia. This study investigates the association between dementia and the risk of developing CAD. All participants (n = 2,002) were over 25 years old (986 females and 1,016 males), and all were residing in urban areas. Validated instruments, including a modified memory impairment scale, were used to assess dementia. The association between memory dysfunction and CAD was evaluated through regression analysis. Definite memory dysfunction was found in 4.54% of participants, with a higher prevalence in men than in women, and was more common than possible memory dysfunction. Regression analysis, after adjusting for age and body mass index, revealed that dementia scores were significantly associated with CAD risk (p<0.001) in both men (odds ratio [OR]: 0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.82 – 0.98) and women (OR: 0.88, CI: 0.81 – 0.96). Similarly, diabetes mellitus scores were strongly associated with CAD risk (p<0.001) in men (OR: 0.76, CI: 0.68 – 0.87) and women (OR: 0.77, CI: 0.77 – 0.87). Sedentary behavior and tobacco use were also positively associated with CAD in both genders (p<0.05), whereas alcoholism showed a modest positive association with CAD risk in men but not in women. These findings suggest a potential association between dementia and CAD risk across genders. However, larger cohort studies are needed to confirm these results.

Keywords
Memory dysfunction
Memory impairment
Neuronal damage
Brain
Heart
Funding
Sandoz Foundation of Gerontological Research, Australia (Grant No.: 2007-1).
Conflict of interest
Ram B. Singh is an Editorial Board Member of this journal but was not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. Separately, other authors declared that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.
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Brain & Heart, Electronic ISSN: 2972-4139 Published by AccScience Publishing