Five-point higher BCS linked to lower risk for incident dementia, stroke in middle-aged and older adults
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Dec. 29, 2023 (HealthDay News) — The 21-point Brain Care Score (BCS) is associated with the risk for dementia and stroke, according to a study published online Dec. 1 in Frontiers in Neurology.
Sanjula D. Singh, M.D., Ph.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues examined the associations of the BCS with incident dementia and stroke. The BCS was derived from the baseline evaluation of 398,990 U.K. Biobank participants aged 40 to 69 years.
The researchers identified 5,354 incident cases of dementia and 7,259 incident cases of stroke during a median follow-up of 12.5 years. For participants aged younger than 50 years, a 5-point higher BCS at baseline was associated with a 59 percent lower risk for dementia; for those aged 50 to 59 and older than 59 years, the corresponding risks were 32 and 8 percent lower. Among participants aged younger than 50, 50 to 59, and older than 59 years, a 5-point higher BCS was associated with a 48, 52, and 33 percent lower risk for stroke, respectively.
“Our hope is that the BCS can serve to educate and motivate people to improve their brain care, and consequently reduce the number of new cases of dementia and stroke and delay the onset of these diseases,” the authors write. “The present study is the essential first step towards determining whether the BCS can fulfil this promise.”
Two authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical and publishing industries.
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