Influence of myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass surgery, and stroke on cognitive impairment in late life.

Relations between cognitive test scores in later life and prior myocardial infarction (MI), coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG), and stroke were examined for this study. Subjects were 3,734 Japanese-American men (80% of surviving Honolulu Heart Program cohort) aged 71 to 93 years at the time of cognitive testing. Impairment was defined as scoring below the 16th percentile on a validated cognitive assessment scale. Prior MI, stroke, and CABG were established using hospital surveillance, history, and record review. After adjustment for age, years of education, and years of childhood spent in Japan, men with prior stroke were significantly more likely than others to have poor cognitive performance (odds ratio 4.4, 95% confidence limits 3.0 to 6.7). History of > 1 stroke was associated with an odds ratio of 50 (95% confidence limits 10.5 to 238.3). There was no significant association between cognitive performance and > or = 1 prior MI or history of CABG. Time between events and cognitive function testing did not affect results. Analyses support a significant association between clinical stroke and persistent cognitive impairment, but fail to implicate CABG or MI.