ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2023
Bidirectional Associations Between Adiposity and Cognitive Function: A Prospective Analysis of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Severe infections, domain-specific cognitive vulnerability, and future infection risk in older adults.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Central Adiposity Accumulation is Associated with Cortical Alteration and Impaired Cognitive Function in Adolescents.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Identifying the optimal combinations of modifiable dementia risk factors to target in multidomain intervention - Three-year longitudinal findings from the Canadian longitudinal study on aging.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2025Article
- Western Diet and Cognitive Decline: A Hungarian Perspective-Implications for the Design of the Semmelweis Study.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Causal links between obesity, lipids, adipokines, and cognition: a bidirectional Mendelian-randomization analysis.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- Is there a role for higher cognitive processes in the development of obesity in humans?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Bidirectional Associations Between Adiposity and Cognitive Function and Mediation by Brain Morphology in the ABCD Study.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- The role of IGF-1 in exercise to improve obesity-related cognitive dysfunction.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTheoretical perspectives suggest that adiposity and cognitive function may be bidirectionally associated, but this has not been examined in a large-scale data set. The current investigation aims to fill this gap using a large, representative sample of middle-aged and older adults.
methodsUsing data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (N = 25 854), the bidirectional hypothesis was examined with 3 indicators of cognitive function (ie, executive function, processing speed, and verbal fluency) and adiposity (ie, waist circumference [WC], body mass index [BMI], and total fat mass). We used multivariate multivariable regression and structural equation modeling to assess the prospective associations between adiposity and cognitive indicators.
resultsAnalyses revealed that higher baseline WC was associated with higher Stroop interference at follow-up for both middle-aged (standardized estimate, β = 0.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.06, 0.10) and older adults (β = 0.07, 95% CI 0.04, 0.09). Similarly, higher baseline Stroop interference was also associated with higher follow-up WC in middle-aged (β = 0.08, 95% CI 0.06, 0.10) and older adults (β = 0.03, 95% CI 0.01, 0.06). Effects involving semantic fluency and processing speed were less consistent. The earlier effects were similar to those observed using other adiposity indicators (eg, BMI and total fat mass) and were robust to adjustment for demographics and other cofounders, and when using latent variable modeling of the adiposity variable.
conclusionEvidence for a bidirectional relationship between adiposity and cognitive function exists, though the associations are most reliable for executive function and primarily evident at midlife.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.