Only three and a half years of intensive blood pressure control have significantly reduced the risk of light cognitive deficit or dementia, long after this treatment was interrupted in adults.
A study this Tuesday in Neurology concluded that the Intensive blood pressure control reduces risk of cognitive decline.
The Sprint Mind study, by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine (USA), included 9,361 participants 50 years or older in more than 100 clinical centers in the US and Puerto Rico.
Participants were randomly designated for a systolic blood pressure goal of less than 120 mm Hg (intensive treatment) or less than 140 mm Hg (standard treatment).
Participants were followed for an average of seven years, with cognitive assessments made in person and by telephone. They were then classified as without cognitive impairment, light cognitive impairment or probable dementia.
“We found that the intensive care group had a consistently less incidence of developing cognitive decline compared to those of the standard treatment group,” he said David M. ReboussinProfessor of Biostatistics and Data Science at the Faculty of Medicine, Wake Forest University and author of the study, quoted by Lusa.
Specifically, researchers found that participants in the intensive treatment group had a lower rate of light cognitive deficit and a lower combined rate of light cognitive deficit or likely dementia.
It started by being a test of cardiovascular disease
In 2015, results of the Sprint Historical Study, which had already shown that intensive blood pressure treatment were published reduced cardiovascular disease and reduced the risk of death by 30-40% in people with hypertension.
Sprint was interrupted early due to the success of the study in reducing cardiovascular disease.
As a result, participants underwent intensive treatment to reduce blood pressure for a shorter period than originally planned.
The authors concluded that the shorter duration made it difficult to determine the role of intensive control of blood pressure in dementia.
Five years later, in 2019, Sprint Mind’s initial results showed that there was a significant risk of developing a light cognitive deficit up to five years after the initial years of intensive blood pressure control.
Sprint Mind’s latest results showed the same significant reduction in previously observed cognitive decline rates, but over a longer period of at least seven years.
“Our study demonstrates that intensive control of blood pressure is an important strategy for preventing cognitive decline, one of the main causes of loss of independence in older adults,” he said Jeff WilliamsonProfessor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Wake Forest University.
