Diabetes status and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults in the Canadian longitudinal study on aging

Mohammad Nazmus Sakib; Reza Ramezan; Peter A Hall

doi:10.3389/fendo.2023.1293988

Diabetes status and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults in the Canadian longitudinal study on aging

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023 Dec 1:14:1293988. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1293988. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mohammad Nazmus Sakib^{1

2}, Reza Ramezan³, Peter A Hall^{2

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
² School of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
³ Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁴ Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.

Abstract

Objectives: Diabetes is recognized as a significant risk factor for cognitive impairment. However, this association has not been thoroughly examined using large-scale population-based datasets in the Canadian context. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential association between cognitive function and diabetes in a large population-based sample of middle-aged and older Canadians.

Methods: We utilized baseline data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (N=30,097) to test our hypotheses, using five indicators of cognitive function (animal fluency, Stroop interference, reaction time, immediate and delayed memory recall). We conducted multivariate multivariable linear regression and subsequently performed tests for moderation analysis with lifestyle factors and health status.

Results: The analysis revealed that type 2 diabetes (T2DM) was associated with lower performance on most cognitive tasks, including those assessing executive function (b=0.60, 95% CI 0.31 to 0.90), reaction time (b=16.94, 95% CI 9.18 to 24.70), immediate memory recall (b=-0.10, 95% CI -0.18 to -0.02), and delayed memory recall (b=-0.12, 95% CI -0.21 to -0.02). However, no significant association was observed between other types of diabetes and cognitive performance. Moderation effects were largely null for T2DM, with the exception of alcohol intake for reaction time, and physical activity for animal fluency.

Conclusions: The study showed that individuals with T2DM exhibit poor performance on tasks that assess executive function, reaction time, and memory. Therefore, optimizing cognitive health among individuals with T2DM should be a priority in primary care. Additionally, further studies should examine this association using longitudinal data.

Keywords: CLSA; cognitive function; diabetes; executive function; memory; reaction time.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Aging / psychology
Canada / epidemiology
Cognition
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2* / complications
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2* / epidemiology
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Memory, Short-Term
Middle Aged

Supplementary concepts

Canadian people

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by an operating grant to the last author (PH) from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2019-04606) and Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), Institute for Population and Public Health (GA3-177733). MNS was provided salary support from the latter mechanism as well as a postdoctoral fellowship from McMaster University.