To determine whether infectious burden (IB) is associated with worse performance and decline on a battery of neuropsychological tests.
Prospective cohort study (Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS)).
Community.
A subsample of 588 stroke-free NOMAS participants with IB and cognitive data (mean age 71 ± 8, 62% female, 14% white, 16% black, 70% Hispanic) and 419 with repeat cognitive testing.
Samples used for IB data were collected at baseline. Two waves of neurocognitive assessments occurred during follow-up. Participants underwent a neuropsychological battery and had repeated testing (mean time span 6 ± 2 years). Using factor analysis-derived domain-specific Z scores for language, memory, executive function, and processing speed, associations between a quantitative stroke risk-weighted IB index (IBI), based on five common infections (Chlamydia pneumoniae, Helicobacter pylori, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2), and cognitive performance and decline in each domain was examined.
Adjusting for demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, crystallized cognitive abilities, and vascular risk factors, the IBI was inversely associated with executive function at baseline (beta = -0.10, P = .01) but not with baseline language, memory, or processing speed performance in adjusted analyses. The IBI was associated with cognitive decline in the memory domain, adjusting for demographic and vascular risk factors (P = .02).
A quantitative stroke risk-weighted measure of IB explained variability in baseline executive function performance and associated with decline in memory. Past exposure to common infections may contribute to vascular cognitive impairment and warrants further study.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 31 August 2016.
All research outputs
#3,340,641
of 24,417,958 outputs
Outputs from Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
#2,813
of 7,881 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#41,393
of 270,788 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
#26
of 90 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,417,958 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 86th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,881 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 23.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 270,788 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 84% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 90 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 71% of its contemporaries.
