The relationship between visceral adiposity and cognitive performance in older adults

Objectives: to investigate the associations between total and regional adiposity measured with abdominal CT, and cognitive performance in elderly persons and to explore their modification by age. Design: cross-sectional study. Setting: a health promotion centre of a tertiary university hospital. Subjects: two-hundred and fifty individuals aged 60 years and above who underwent anthropometric measurements, abdominal CT and cognitive testing. Methods: adiposity measures included body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and visceral and subcutaneous adiposity by abdominal CT. Poor cognitive performance was defined as Mini-Mental State Examination score being at or below 1 SD of age, sex and education-normative values. Results: in multivariate logistic regression analyses obesity [odds ratio (OR) 2.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.21-6.01, P = 0.015] and being in the top tertile of the visceral adiposity area (OR: 2.58, 95% CI = 1.001-6.62, P = 0.045) were associated with poor cognitive performance in subjects younger than 70 years, but not in those 70 years and older. Conclusion: high adiposity, particularly visceral adiposity, was associated with poor cognitive functioning in younger elderly persons.