Abdominal fat linked to increased dementia risk in older men: study
Overall body fat mass, however, may have a protective effect.
Older men with a disproportionate amount of abdominal fat relative to their weight are at significantly higher risk of dementia, a study suggests.
However, body fat mass and overall lean body mass appeared protective against cognitive decline and dementia in later life, according to the study published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring.
Researchers from Melbourne’s Monash University assessed data from 17,891 community-dwelling participants aged 65-98 in the US and Australia over a follow-up period of up to 11 years.
They linked different components of body composition to dementia incidence and changes in four cognitive domains: global cognition, episodic memory, psychomotor speed and verbal fluency.
