Poor cognitive test scores at 60 linked to higher stroke risk, study finds

Lower cognitive test scores in adults aged 60 to 69 were linked to a higher future stroke risk in a Swedish study of nearly 5,000 people.

The study compared performance on tests of thinking ability, memory and information-processing speed with subsequent stroke risk.

Lower thinking ability scores were associated with an 86 per cent higher risk of stroke, while lower memory scores were linked to a 68 per cent higher risk.

Lower processing speed scores were associated with a 66 per cent higher risk. The same pattern was not seen among participants in their 70s and 80s.

Nearly 5,000 Swedish adults aged 60 to 80 took the cognitive tests between 2001 and 2023.

Lead author Dr Alice Askemyr, a geriatrics researcher at Lund University in Sweden, said one possible explanation for the age difference involved so-called silent brain injuries.

Askemyr said: “So-called ‘silent’ brain injuries can affect both cognitive functioning and the future risk of stroke.”

“They affect roughly 70 per cent of adults over age 70, so their effects may be easier to detect among people in their 60s, when such injuries and other factors that can affect cognition, including medical conditions and medications, are less common.”

This could mean people in their 60s who performed poorly on the tests had already experienced undetected brain injuries.

A stroke occurs when blood flow to part of the brain is blocked or stops, potentially causing paralysis, problems with speech, memory loss or death.

Stroke risk increases with age, doubling every 10 years after age 55, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although many strokes also occur in people younger than 65.

Askemyr cautioned that the findings may not apply directly to populations in other countries because of differences in lifestyle and socioeconomic factors.

Dr Elisabeth Breese Marsh, professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, who was not involved in the study, said: “This study, in conjunction with others, supports how important it is to be aggressive in managing vascular risk factors and focusing on brain health in midlife, before many people typically begin to think about it.”

“However, because we don’t know for sure if there is something about the cognitive impairment itself that further increases risk of stroke, the study also provides a new potential screening factor to identify those with higher stroke risk.”