Association of body mass index with risk of cognitive impairment and dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies
Abstract
Controversies persist about the associations of body mass index (BMI) with risk of cognitive impairment and dementia. This study aimed to evaluate these associations from various aspects, in which Embase, PubMed and Cochrane databases were searched to identify prospective studies up to May 2019. Random-effects meta-analyses and dose-response meta-analysis were conducted, involving twenty-nine of 20,083 identified literatures. Meta-analysis showed that midlife underweight, obesity and late-life underweight conferred 1.39-, 1.31- and 1.64-fold excess risk for cognitive impairment and dementia, while late-life overweight and obesity conferred 21% and 25% reduced risk. In dose-response meta-analysis, all cause dementia (ACD), Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) risk in midlife was significantly elevated when BMI surpassed 29, 30 and 32 kg/m 2 . AD risk in late-life was decreased when BMI was under 27 kg/m 2 , while this protection for VaD was absent when BMI surpassed 39 kg/m 2 . Higher BMI produced opposite exerted opposite effects on dementia in mid- and late-age population. Firstly reported, a dose-response relationship further supports the guideline from the standpoint of dementia prevention.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Midlife obesity is associated with subsequent all-cause dementia (RR 1.31, 95% CI 1.02-1.68).
“A further systematic review and meta-analyses examining the relationship between obesity and dementia included 14 studies with 77,890 participants, and found that midlife obesity was associated with subsequent all cause dementia (RR 1.31, 1.021.68).(198)”
From Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission (2024) · cites this paper as [198]
Cites
Di Angelantonio, E., Bhupathiraju, S. N., Wormser, D., Gao, P., Kaptoge, S., de Gonzalez, A. B., Cairns, B. J., Huxley, R., Jackson, C. L., Joshy, G., et al. (2016) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)30175-1 · Cited by 2,821 · see citing works
Mitchell, A. J., & Shiri‐Feshki, M. (2009) · Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.2008.01326.x · Cited by 1,659 · see citing works
Obesity and Vascular Risk Factors at Midlife and the Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer Disease
Kivipelto, M., Ngandu, T., Fratiglioni, L., Viitanen, M., Kåreholt, I., Winblad, B., Helkala, E.-L., Tuomilehto, J., Soininen, H., & Nissinen, A. (2005) · Archives of Neurology · doi:10.1001/archneur.62.10.1556 · Cited by 1,291 · see citing works
Midlife and Late-Life Obesity and the Risk of Dementia: Cardiovascular Health Study
Fitzpatrick, A. L., Kuller, L. H., Lopez, O. L., Diehr, P., O’Meara, E. S., Longstreth, W. T., & Luchsinger, J. A. (2009) · Archives of Neurology · doi:10.1001/archneurol.2008.582 · Cited by 796 · see citing works
Body Mass Index in Midlife and Risk of Alzheimer Disease and Vascular Dementia
Whitmer, R., Gunderson, E., Quesenberry, C., Zhou, J., & Yaffe, K. (2007) · Current Alzheimer Research · doi:10.2174/156720507780362047 · Cited by 430 · see citing works
Koepsell, T. D., & Monsell, S. E. (2012) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/wnl.0b013e31826e26b7 · Cited by 369 · see citing works
Body Mass Index, Other Cardiovascular Risk Factors, and Hospitalization for Dementia
Rosengren, A. (2005) · Archives of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/archinte.165.3.321 · Cited by 207 · see citing works
Sachdev, P. S., Lipnicki, D. M., Crawford, J., Reppermund, S., Kochan, N. A., Trollor, J. N., Wen, W., Draper, B., Slavin, M. J., Kang, K., et al. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059649 · Cited by 193 · see citing works
The risk of dementia with increased body mass index
Gorospe, E. C., & Dave, J. K. (2006) · Age and Ageing · doi:10.1093/ageing/afl123 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission
Livingston, G., Huntley, J., Liu, K. Y., Costafreda, S. G., Selbæk, G., Alladi, S., Ames, D., Banerjee, S., Burns, A., Brayne, C., et al. (2024) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(24)01296-0 · Cited by 3,860 · see citing works
Umbrella review and Delphi study on modifiable factors for dementia risk reduction
Rosenau, C., Köhler, S., Soons, L. M., Anstey, K. J., Brayne, C., Brodaty, H., Engedal, K., Farina, F. R., Ganguli, M., Livingston, G., et al. (2024) · Alzheimer's & Dementia · doi:10.1002/alz.13577 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
- Authors
- Qu, Y., Hu, H.-Y., Ou, Y.-N., Shen, X.-N., Xu, W., Wang, Z.-T., Dong, Q., Tan, L., & Yu, J.-T.
- Affiliations
- Qingdao University (CN)
- Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Yu, Jin-Tai
- Venue
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-08
- Volume
- 115
- Pages
- 189-198
- ISSN
- 0149-7634 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3029958263
- Cited by
- 240
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 53 · 2025: 52 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 4
- FWCI
- 3.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1314700)
- Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project
- Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute
- State Key Laboratory of Neurobiology and Frontiers Center for Brain Science of Ministry of Education
- Fudan University
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Risks and Factors
- Keywords
- body mass index, cognitive impairment, dementia, obesity, underweight, overweight, midlife, old age, Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, all-cause dementia, dose-response relationship, dementia prevention
- MeSH terms
- Dementia, Humans, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Body Mass Index, Cognitive Dysfunction
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
