Modifiable factors, cardiorespiratory fitness and cardiovascular risk are associated with cognitive and structural brain health in midlife: Results from the BBHI

Background Neurodegenerative brain changes that lead to cognitive decline generally begin decades prior to the onset of symptoms. On the other hand, brain health relates to overall, and specifically cardio‐vascular health, and vice‐versa. The objective of this investigation was to assess the relationships between two important domains of cardiovascular health (cardiorespiratory fitness, CRF, and cardiovascular risk, CVR) and two important markers of brain health (cognitive performance and volumetric measures of brain structure) in late middle age. Method In a relatively large sample (n=327) of middle‐aged adults in the Barcelona Brain Health Initiative (Cattaneo et al., 2018), we assessed the associations between CRF (measured by VO2 max), CVR (measured by Framingham risk score), domain‐specific cognitive performance (measured by performance in a neuropsychological test battery) and brain volumes (measured by high‐resolution brain MRI). All regression models were corrected for age and education. Result We found differential associations between CRF and CVR and cognitive performance. CRF was significantly associated with visuo‐spatial abilities and frontal loading problem solving (p=.003), whereas CVR was associated with visuo‐spatial abilities (p=.023), flexibility (p=.005), processing speed (p