People who had all three conditions were three times more likely to develop dementia than people who had a high genetic risk. We found that having such heart-related conditions is linked to dementia risk to a greater extent than genetic risk. The team divided the 200,000 participants into three categories of genetic risk from high to low, based on a comprehensive risk score reflecting multiple genetic risk traits relevant to individuals of European ancestry. By contrast, high genetic risk was linked to deterioration only in specific parts of the brain. The paper is entitled ‘Cardiometabolic multimorbidity, genetic risk, and dementia: a prospective cohort study’.
