Shorter adult height is associated with poorer cognitive performance in elderly men with type II diabetes.
We studied the relationship of adult body height with five cognitive outcomes (executive functioning, semantic categorization, attention/working memory, episodic memory, and an overall cognition measure) in 897 cognitively normal elderly with type 2 diabetes. Regression analyses controlling for sociodemographic, cardiovascular, and diabetes-related risk factors and depression demonstrated that in males, shorter stature was associated with poorer executive functioning (p = 0.001), attention/working memory (p = 0.007), and overall cognition (p = 0.016), but not with episodic memory (p = 0.715) or semantic categorization (p = 0.948). No relationship between height and cognition was found for females. In cognitively normal type 2 diabetes male subjects, shorter stature, a surrogate for early-life stress and poor nutrition, was associated with cognitive functions.
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Rebecca K
RK
West
The Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Ramit
R
Ravona-Springer
Maccabi Healthcare Services, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
Anthony
A
Heymann
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
James
J
Schmeidler
Division of Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Bone Disease, Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Derek
D
Leroith
The Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Keren
K
Koifman
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Elizabeth
E
Guerrero-Berroa
The Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Rachel
R
Preiss
The Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Hadas
H
Hoffman
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA.
Jeremy M
JM
Silverman
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA The Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Michal Schnaider
MS
Beeri
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D001827:Body Height; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013223:Statistics as Topic
Cognitive performance; height; risk factors; type 2 diabetes mellitus; vascular dementia