ArticleGerontology2026
Associations between Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Cognitive Function: A Cross-Sectional Study of Twins in the UK.
Article in Gerontology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
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.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
<p>Introduction: Cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) have been associated with cognitive impairment; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study used twins modeling, to investigate whether shared twin factors contribute to the associations between CVRFs and cognitive function.
methodsThis study used a cross-sectional design, and participants were from the UK adult twin registry. Clinically validated cognitive tests were administered during routine clinical research visits between 2013 and 2016, measuring overall global cognition, recall, verbal fluency, processing speed, and episodic memory and learning. CVRFs were total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), systolic blood pressure (SBP), type 2 diabetes, and smoking status.
resultsParticipants were between 1,300 and 2,300 twins (depending on the cognitive test), and the mean age of twins was approximately 56 years. Cholesterol levels (both TC and HDL) were significantly associated (p < 0.05) with overall global cognition, recall, and verbal fluency with effect sizes (standardized) ranging from 0.5 to 0.11. In the twins modeling, after adjusting for genetic and shared environmental factors, the associations disappeared. Similarly, higher SBP levels were associated with poorer verbal fluency performance (-0.05 [-0.10 to 0.00]), and while between-pair effects were found to be significant (-0.09 [-0.15 to -0.03]), within-pair effects (after adjusting of shared environmental factors) were not.
conclusionHigher TC and HDL and lower SBP were all associated with better performance on a range of validated cognitive tests. However, findings suggest that the association between CVRFs and cognitive function is predominantly explained by shared twin-pair factors which may be genetic or shared environment. </p>.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.