Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29654035›Full record

ArticleBMJ open2018

Associations between blood cadmium levels and cognitive function in a cross-sectional study of US adults aged 60 years or older.

Hongyu Li, Zhihui Wang, Zhen Fu, Mingming Yan, Nanjin Wu, Hongyan Wu, Ping Yin

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
39citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

39 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. The Epidemiological and Toxicological Intersection of Air Pollution and Dementia.Reviews of environmental contamination and toxicology · 2025
    Review
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Cadmium inhibits calcium activity in hippocampal CA1 neurons of freely moving mice.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2024
    Article
  12. Mechanisms of Cadmium Neurotoxicity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023
    Review
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Metals in Alzheimer's Disease.Biomedicines · 2023
    Review
  18. Review
  19. Inflammation, metabolic dysregulation and environmental neurotoxins and risk of cognitive decline and impairment in midlife.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2023
    Article
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Hongyu Li *Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and State Key Laboratory of Environment Health, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Zhihui Wang *Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and State Key Laboratory of Environment Health, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Zhen FuDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and State Key Laboratory of Environment Health, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Mingming YanDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and State Key Laboratory of Environment Health, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Nanjin WuDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and State Key Laboratory of Environment Health, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Hongyan WuDepartment of Nursing, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Ping YinDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and State Key Laboratory of Environment Health, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.ORCID 0000-0003-0869-3772

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesThe relationship between cadmium exposure and cognition has been well studied in children. However, the association between environmental cadmium exposure and cognitive function has not been researched extensively in older adults. Our goal was to evaluate the association between cognitive function and blood cadmium levels in US adults aged 60 years or older.

designA cross-sectional study.

settingThe US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

participantsA total of 2068 adults aged 60 years or older who completed four cognitive assessment tests and blood cadmium detection in two waves of NHANES (2011-2014).

main outcome measuresCognitive assessment was conducted by household interview or at a Mobile Examination Center (MEC) using the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) Word List Learning Test, the CERAD Word List Recall Test, the Animal Fluency Test and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST). We created a composite cognitive z-score to represent global cognitive function.

resultsThe median blood cadmium concentration in the study participants was 0.35 µg/L, and the IQR was 0.24-0.56 µg/L. In linear regression analyses, adjusting for demographics, behaviour and medical history, blood cadmium as a continuous variable was inversely associated with the composite z-score (μg/L, β=-0.11, 95% CI -0.20 to -0.03). Similarly, there was a significant association between quartiles of blood cadmium and composite z-score, with somewhat lower scores in the upper quartile of exposure (blood cadmium ≥0.63 µg/L) compared with those in the lower quartile of exposure (blood cadmium <0.25 µg/L) (μg/L, β=-0.14, 95% CI -0.25 to -0.03), and there was a trend by quartiles of blood cadmium (P<0.0001).

conclusionsOur findings suggest that increased blood cadmium is associated with worse cognitive function in adults aged 60 years or older in the USA.

Indexed as

AgedCadmiumCognitionCognition DisordersCross-Sectional StudiesEnvironmental ExposureFemaleHumansMaleNutrition SurveysUnited StatesCadmiumageingcadmiumcognitive functionNHANES

Identifiers

PMID29654035
PMCPMC5898350

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.