Sex-specific nonlinear associations between serum lipids and different domains of cognitive function in middle to older age individuals

• DOI: 10.1007/s11011-017-9999-y
• Publication Date: 2017-04-03T18:11:28Z
• Authors: Yanhui Lu; Yu An; Huanling Yu; Fengyuan Che; Xiaona Zhang; Hongguo Rong; Yuandi Xi; Rong Xiao
• Keywords: Male; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; 03 medical and health sciences; Cholesterol; Cognition; Sex Factors; 0302 clinical medicine; Memory; Humans; Female; Triglycerides; Aged

To examine how serum lipids relates to specific cognitive ability domains between the men and women in Chinese middle to older age individuals. A complete lipid panel was obtained from 1444 individuals, ages 50-65, who also underwent a selection of cognitive tests. Participants were 584 men and 860 women from Linyi city, Shandong province. Multiple linear regression analyses examined serum lipids level as quadratic predictors of sex-specific measure of performance in different cognitive domains, which were adjusted for sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics. In men, a significant quadratic effect of total cholesterol (TC) was identified for Digit Symbol (B = -0.081, P = 0.044) and also quadratic effect of low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) was identified for Trail Making Test B (B = -0.082, P = 0.045). Differently in women, there were significant quadratic associations between high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and multiple neuropsychological tests. The nonlinear lipid-cognition associations differed between men and women and were specific to certain cognitive domains and might be of potential relevance for prevention and therapy of cognitive decline.