UMMS Affiliation

Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences; Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

Publication Date

2021-07-31

Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Cardiology | Cardiovascular Diseases | Epidemiology | Race and Ethnicity

Abstract

Background: Non-Whites are more likely to suffer from cognitive impairment and complications of atrial fibrillation (AF) than Whites, though Whites are more likely to be diagnosed with AF. We examined whether non-Whites with AF are biologically older than Whites with AF and whether accelerated biological aging is associated with cognitive functioning.

Methods: We used baseline data from the ongoing Systematic Assessment of Geriatric Elements in Atrial Fibrillation prospective cohort study, collected 2016-2020 across ambulatory care practices in Massachusetts and Georgia. Of 1244 enrolled, 974 participants with full biological data were included in the present analysis. Accelerated aging (AccA) was calculated based on a combination of biomarkers associated with age and physiological "wear and tear."

Findings: The main outcome was score on Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Non-Whites had 2.9 years more AccA than Whites and higher AccA was associated with a lower MoCA score among both Whites (-0.06, 95% CI: -0.10, -0.03) and non-Whites (-0.14, 95% CI: -0.27, 0.02). This association was significantly greater among non-whites (-0.11, 95% CI: -0.20, -0.01).

Interpretation: Non-White AF patients are functionally "older" than their White counterparts and experience a stronger deleterious association between AccA and cognition. These findings underscore the importance of taking functional age into account when treating patients with AF, particularly non-White patients, to enhance treatment and improve AF outcomes.

Keywords

atrial fibrillation, biological aging, non-whites

Rights and Permissions

Copyright © 2021 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

DOI of Published Version

10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101060

Source

Forrester SN, McManus DD, Saczynski JS, Pierre-Louis IC, Bamgbade BA, Kiefe CI. A cross-sectional analysis of racial differences in accelerated aging and cognitive function among patients with atrial fibrillation: The SAGE-AF study: Forrester, Accelerated aging and cognitive function. EClinicalMedicine. 2021 Jul 31;39:101060. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101060. PMID: 34386761; PMCID: PMC8342899. Link to article on publisher's site

Journal/Book/Conference Title

EClinicalMedicine

PubMed ID

34386761

Related Resources

Link to Article in PubMed

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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