Higher resting heart rate (RHR) was linked to greater dementia risk and faster cognitive decline independent of cardiovascular disease in a study of more than 2,000 older adults in Sweden.
People with RHR of 80 bpm or higher had a 55% increased risk of developing dementia compared with people whose RHR was 60-69 bpm (adjusted HR 1.55, 95% CI 1.06-2.27), reported Yume Imahori, MD, PhD, of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and co-authors.
The association remained significant after excluding people with prevalent and incident cardiovascular disease. Cognitive function scores fell over time in all RHR groups, but people with RHR of 80 bpm or higher declined more quickly than people with RHR of 60-69 bpm, Imahori and co-authors wrote in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
“This study is important because RHR might be used to identify older people with a potentially high risk of cognitive decline in a wide variety of settings,” Imahori added.
“If cognitive function in patients with elevated RHR is followed carefully and early intervention is made, the onset of dementia might be delayed, which can have a substantial impact on patients’ quality of life,” she said. “If further studies show that this association is causal, reducing RHR might be considered as a target of intervention.”
