Parental longevity is associated with cognition and brain ageing in middle-aged offspring

So since my Mom at 95 still living at home and doing good, dad died at 91 with Parkinsons dementia, at least Parkinsons is not genetic, Maybe my  dementia chances are not that great.
But after your stroke how much is your doctor working on preventing dementia in you? They've done nothing for your recovery, are they at least working on preventing your dementia?
Parental longevity is associated with cognition and brain ageing in middle-aged offspring

1. Joanne M. Murabito1,2⇑,
2. Alexa S. Beiser2,3,4,
3. Charles DeCarli5,
4. Sudha Seshadri2,4,
5. Philip A. Wolf2,4 and
6. Rhoda Au2,4

+ Author Affiliations

1. ¹Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
2. ²NHLBI's Framingham Heart Study, 73 Mount Wayte Avenue, Suite 2, Framingham, MA, USA
3. ³Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
4. ⁴Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
5. ⁵University of California at Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA

1. Address correspondence to: J. M. Murabito. Tel: (+1) 5089353461; Fax: (+1) 5086261262. Email: murabito@bu.edu

• Received April 17, 2013.
• Accepted August 16, 2013.

Abstract

Background: offspring of long-lived individuals have lower risk for dementia. We examined the relation between parental longevity and cognition and subclinical markers of brain ageing in community-dwelling adult offspring.

Methods: offspring participants with both parents in the Framingham Heart Study, aged ≥55 years and dementia-free underwent baseline and repeat neuropsychological (NP) testing and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Parental longevity was defined as having at least one parent survive to age ≥85 years. To test the association between parental longevity and measures of cognition and brain volumes, we used multivariable linear and logistic regression adjusting for age, sex, education and time to NP testing or brain MRI.

Results: of 728 offspring (mean age 66 years, 54% women), 407 (56%) had ≥1 parent achieve longevity. In cross-sectional analysis, parental longevity was associated with better scores on attention (beta 0.21 ± 0.08, P = 0.006) and a lower odds of extensive white matter hyperintensity on brain MRI (odds ratio 0.59, 95% CI: 0.38, 0.92, P = 0.019). The association with white matter hyperintensity was no longer significant in models adjusted for cardiovascular risk factors and disease. In longitudinal analysis (6.7 ± 1.7 years later), offspring with parental longevity had slower decline in attention (0.18 ± 0.08, P = 0.038), executive function (beta 0.19 ± 0.09, P = 0.031) and visual memory (beta −0.18 ± 0.08, P = 0.023), and less increase in temporal horn volume (beta −0.25 ± 0.09, P = 0.005). The associations persisted in fully adjusted models.

Conclusion: parental longevity is associated with better brain ageing in middle-aged offspring.