Cognitive Dysfunction More Likely in Older Adults With Asthma

Asthma was associated with cognitive dysfunction in a sample of adults aged 60 years and older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), according to findings published online in Scientific Reports.

“Furthermore, mediation analysis suggested that asthma might contribute to cognitive dysfunction through the involvement of systemic immune inflammation,” wrote a research team from Huzhou Central Hospital and Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital in China.

The retrospective cross-sectional study included 2579 adults aged 60 years and older from the 2011 to 2012 and 2013 to 2014 NHANES cycles. Systemic immune-inflammatory scores were calculated with the following formula: (platelet count x neutrophil count) / lymphocyte count.

Among participants, 360 had asthma (59.7% were women; mean age 68.26 years), and 2219 did not have asthma.

Cognitive dysfunction was more likely in participants with asthma. The association did not change after controlling for demographic variables including sex, age, race/ethnicity, poverty-to-income ratio, and education level. Even after further adjustments for body mass index and diabetes, the association between asthma and cognitive dysfunction persisted.

Participants’ inflammatory response, reflected by systemic immune-inflammatory scores, mediated asthma-induced cognitive impairment, according to the analysis. Researchers reported a notable average causal mediated effect of the relationship between systemic immune-inflammatory scores and cognitive dysfunction.

“A longitudinal follow-up study is needed to evaluate the risk factors for cognitive dysfunction in patients with asthma and the association between asthma control and cognitive function using a large population,” the authors wrote. “The cognitive impact of asthma may change our view of asthma management and may require a balance of cognitive training or the establishment of preventive interventions.”

Reference

Hu J, Ma H, Ning Z, et al. Asthma and cognitive dysfunction in older adults: the mediating role of systemic immune-inflammation index. Sci Rep. 2024;14(1):27194. doi:10.1038/s41598-024-76393-y