Elderly people with diabetes have an increased risk of dementia, especially so-called vascular dementia, according to new data from an ongoing Swedish study.

Vascular dementia is a step-wise deterioration in intellectual powers that becomes apparent as different areas of the brain are damaged by a loss of blood supply.

“The risk for dementia and vascular dementia is especially high when diabetes mellitus occurs together with severe systolic hypertension or heart disease,” investigators note in the journal Neurology.

Among 1300 individuals 75 years of age or older, 350 developed dementia - including 260 cases of Alzheimer’s disease and 49 cases of vascular dementia - over an average of six years.

Diabetes increased the risk of dementia 1.5-fold, and vascular dementia by 2.6 times.

Dr. Chengxuan Qiu from the Stockholm Gerontology Research Center and co-authors of the report “failed to find a relevant association between diabetes mellitus and Alzheimer’s disease risk.”

However, diabetes mellitus in combination with severely increased systolic blood pressure (i.e., the top reading) significantly increased the risk of dementia (3.0-fold), Alzheimer’s disease (2.6-fold), and vascular dementia (11.3-fold).

Also, diabetes coupled with heart disease had a synergistic effect on vascular dementia risk.

These results, the authors say, support “the notion that a combination of multiple approaches such as lifestyle changes and use of appropriate drug regimens is of importance in the prevention of not only cardiovascular disease but also dementia.”

SOURCE: Neurology, October 12, 2004.