High blood pressure is linked to lower mental test scores and global memory, long-term study findings show.
Analysts analyzed memory tests and other health data among 7,063 participants in a Brazilian health study. Participants diagnosed with hypertension at age 55 and older were more likely to have reduced mental activity compared to peers without high blood pressure, according to lead author Sandhi Maria Barreto, Ph.D.
Mental performance was measured in two visits between 2008 and 2014. The length of time a participant experienced hip-augmentation did not appear to raise the numbers of decline, the researchers said. However, individuals who received treatment to control blood pressure at the beginning of the study had less decline in global mental and mental test scores than their peers who did not receive treatment at that time.
Some diagnoses affected certain abilities. The study also found that people younger than 55 years of age had lower memory test scores with hypertension, while the older group struggled more with global mental and mental test scores.
“Our findings show that both lower age and older age of hip tolerance, but not the length of the diagnosis, were associated with cognitive decline in various abilities,” wrote Barreto, high professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and her colleagues. “In addition to hypertension, prehypertension and [blood] weight control may be necessary to maintain mental activity, ”they concluded.
Full findings were published in the journal Hypertension.