TABLE 1.
Characteristics of study participants in the total sample and by dementia status.
| Total sample | All‐cause dementia | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics a | (n = 5704) | No (n = 5402) | Yes (n = 302) | p‐value |
| Age (y), median (IQR) | 70.0 (7.0) | 70.0 (7.0) | 76.0 (11.0) | <0.001 |
| Female sex, n (%) | 3268 (57.3) | 3059 (56.6) | 209 (69.2) | <0.001 |
| Educational level, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Illiterate | 2308 (40.5) | 2104 (38.9) | 204 (67.5) | |
| Primary school | 2398 (42.0) | 2321 (43.0) | 77 (25.5) | |
| Middle school or above | 998 (17.5) | 977 (18.1) | 21 (7.0) | |
| Farmers, n (%) | 4920 (88.3) | 4663 (87.9) | 257 (94.8) | <0.001 |
| Ever smoking, n (%) | 2028 (35.6) | 1957 (36.2) | 71 (23.6) | <0.001 |
| Current alcohol drinking, n (%) | 1650 (28.9) | 1614 (29.9) | 36 (12.0) | <0.001 |
| Physical inactivity, n (%) | 1949 (35.1) | 1853 (35.0) | 96 (37.2) | 0.519 |
| APOE ε4 carriers, n (%) | 876 (15.9) | 826 (15.8) | 50 (17.9) | 0.414 |
| Hypertension, n (%) | 3807 (67.3) | 3604 (67.2) | 203 (67.9) | 0.864 |
| Hyperlipidemia, n (%) | 1387 (24.3) | 1298 (24.0) | 89 (29.5) | 0.038 |
| Severe depression, n (%) | 51 (1.0) | 39 (0.8) | 12 (7.0) | <0.001 |
| Heart disease, n (%) | 1343 (23.5) | 1254 (23.2) | 89 (29.5) | 0.015 |
| Stroke, n (%) | 899 (15.8) | 794 (14.7) | 105 (34.8) | <0.001 |
| Type 2 diabetes, n (%) | 820 (14.4) | 763 (14.1) | 57 (18.9) | 0.027 |
| Visceral obesity, n (%) | 1471 (25.8) | 1374 (25.4) | 97 (32.1) | 0.012 |
| CMM‐I b | ||||
| No. of CMDs, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| 0 | 3308 (58.0) | 3186 (59.0) | 122 (40.4) | |
| 1 | 1802 (31.6) | 1683 (31.2) | 119 (39.4) | |
| 2 | 522 (9.2) | 471 (8.7) | 51 (16.9) | |
| 3 | 72 (1.3) | 62 (1.1) | 10 (3.3) | |
| Presence of CMM, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| No | 5110 (89.6) | 4869 (90.1) | 241 (79.8) | |
| Yes | 594 (10.4) | 533 (9.9) | 61 (20.2) | |
| CMM‐II c | ||||
| No. of CMDs, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| 0 | 2581 (45.2) | 2488 (46.1) | 93 (30.8) | |
| 1 | 2019 (35.4) | 1915 (35.4) | 104 (34.4) | |
| 2 | 836 (14.7) | 761 (14.1) | 75 (24.8) | |
| 3 | 230 (4.0) | 204 (3.8) | 26 (8.6) | |
| 4 | 38 (0.7) | 34 (0.6) | 4 (1.3) | |
| Presence of CMM, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| No | 4600 (80.6) | 4403 (81.5) | 197 (65.2) | |
| Yes | 1104 (19.4) | 999 (18.5) | 105 (34.8) | |
| Plasma AD‐related biomarkers (n = 1439) | n = 1439 | n = 1299 | n = 140 | |
| NfL (pg/mL), median (IQR) | 12.5 (7.7) | 12.0 (6.8) | 18.7 (15.1) | <0.001 |
| Aβ42 (pg/mL), median (IQR) | 11.9 (3.7) | 11.8 (3.7) | 12.6 (4.3) | 0.020 |
| Aβ40 (pg/mL), median (IQR) | 169.0 (56.2) | 168.0 (54.4) | 188.0 (66) | <0.001 |
| Total tau (pg/mL), median (IQR) | 2.3 (1.2) | 2.3 (1.2) | 2.7 (1.5) | <0.001 |
| Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio (×1000), median (IQR) | 69.8 (19.5) | 70.3 (19.5) | 65.4 (18.2) | 0.011 |
| Serum cytokines (n = 1804) | n = 1809 | n = 1623 | n = 186 | |
| IL‐6 (pg/mL), median (IQR) | 0.9 (0.7) | 0.9 (0.7) | 1.0 (1.0) | <0.001 |
| IL‐8 (pg/mL), median (IQR) | 18.1 (21.1) | 18.1 (21.1) | 18.6 (21.4) | 0.836 |
| TNF‐α (pg/mL), median (IQR) | 1.6 (0.7) | 1.6 (0.7) | 1.8 (0.9) | <0.001 |
Notes: Data are median (IQR) or n (%).
Abbreviations: Aβ, amyloid‐β; AD, Alzheimer's disease; APOE, apolipoprotein E; CMDs, cardiometabolic diseases; CMM, cardiometabolic multimorbidity; IL‐6, interleukin‐6; IL‐8, interleukin‐8; IQR, interquartile range; NfL, neurofilament light chain; TNF‐α, tumor necrosis factor‐α.
The number of participants with missing values was 130 for occupation, two for smoking, one for alcohol drinking, 158 for physical inactivity, 208 for APOE ε4 allele, 45 for hypertension, and 461 for severe depression. As a covariate in subsequent analyses, a dummy variable was created for each of the categorical variables to represent those with missing values.
CMM‐I was defined as the concurrent presence of two or more of the following three cardiometabolic diseases: type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
CMM‐II was defined as the concurrent presence of two or more of the following four cardiometabolic diseases: visceral obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.