MedWire News: Heart disease is associated with poor mental abilities in the areas of reasoning, vocabulary and verbal fluency, study results show.

Furthermore, a longer duration of heart disease is associated with greater decline in mental abilities, particularly among men, says the team.

"Some studies show coronary heart disease to be a risk factor for cognitive function while others report no association between the two," explain Dr Archana Singh-Manoux, from Hôpital Ste Périne in Paris, France, and team.

To investigate further, the researchers studied data on 5837 people, aged 35 to 55 years, who were participating in a long-term UK health study.

In 2002-2004, all the participants underwent cognitive tests, in which their verbal and mathematical reasoning, vocabulary, verbal fluency, short-term verbal memory and general mental abilities were assessed.

The team also assessed the number of coronary heart disease events, such as heart attacks and angina, experienced by the participants in the past.

After accounting for factors such as age, education and marital status, the researchers found that men and women with a history of coronary heart disease scored significantly lower on tests of reasoning, vocabulary and overall mental abilities than those without such a history.

Among men with heart disease, those who had experienced their first heart disease event more than 10 years ago had poorer mental abilities than those who had suffered their first event more recently.

This association was less evident among women with heart disease.

"Our findings go some way towards suggesting an association between coronary heart disease and cognitive performance in middle-aged adults," the researchers write in the European Heart journal.

Dr Singh-Manoux added: "The major risk factors for coronary heart disease are cigarette smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. All of these are modifiable, and smoking, diet and physical exercise are key targets for prevention.

"Our results on the link between coronary heart disease and cognition underline the importance of these preventive measures by highlighting the impact of these risk factors not only on coronary heart disease but also on people's cognitive functioning."