Cognitive impairment and cardiovascular medication use: Results from wave 1 of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing

AimTo explore the association between cardiovascular medication use and cognitive impairment in adults aged 50years and over. MethodThis cross-sectional linked database study involved secondary quantitative analysis of 1903 participants from wave 1 of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing with available pharmacy claims data. Cognitive impairment was assessed using a cut-off of 23 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Cardiovascular medication use was calculated using the proportion of days covered for antihypertensive, antithrombotic, and lipid-modifying medications. For each class of cardiovascular medication, participants were categorized as belonging to one of three medication use groups: (1) not dispensed any medications (reference); (2) poor adherence (proportion of days covered <80%); and (3) good adherence (proportion of days covered 80%). ResultsControlling for demographic and health variables, there was no evidence of an independent association between impaired cognitive function and use of antihypertensives [good adherence OR (95% CI): 1.16 (0.88, 1.52), poor adherence OR (95% CI): 1.39 (0.95, 2.04)]; antithrombotics [good adherence OR (95% CI): 1.26 (0.93, 1.70), poor adherence OR 95% CI): 1.13 (0.80, 1.59)]; or lipid-modifying agents [good adherence OR (95% CI): 0.95 (0.71, 1.25), poor adherence OR (95% CI): 0.88 (0.64, 1.22)]. ConclusionWe found no evidence of an association between cardiovascular medication use and cognitive function. Future studies should investigate the prospective associations between cognition and use of cardiovascular medications using longitudinal data.