Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a syndrome characterized by a decline in various cognitive domains, including prospective episodic memory (PEM) and executive functions (EF). It has been...Show moreMild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a syndrome characterized by a decline in various cognitive domains, including prospective episodic memory (PEM) and executive functions (EF). It has been recognized recently that vascular risk factors (VRF), such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, can also have detrimental effects on these cognitive domains. Less research has been conducted on the synergistic influence of MCI and VRF on cognition, with available studies providing mixed results. Moreover, only one study has been conducted on the topic regarding the Greek population, so more research is needed to account for possible differences in ethnicity-related variables. Therefore, we sought to investigate how MCI with comorbid VRF influence PEM and EF, compared to VRF alone and healthy ageing. A sample of 111 Greek older adults participated in the study, divided into three groups: patients with MCI and concomitant VRF, patients with VRF and healthy controls. To assess cognition, tests were used to measure PEM, interference control, flexibility and semantic and phonemic verbal fluency. Data were analysed using MANCOVA, controlling for the educational level of the participants. Results showed that there were no differences between the two pathological groups for any of the measures, but the healthy controls outperformed the MCI+VRF (adjusted mean difference of total score being 8.94, 95 % confidence interval (CI) [3.67, 14.20], p < .001) and the VRF group (adjusted mean difference of total score being 8.20, 95% CI [2.94, 13.46], p < .001) in the semantic fluency task. Indeed, literature has shown that both MCI and VRF affect the integrity of frontal networks, which mainly support EF function. Methodological differences, such as the older age of the sample and the simplicity of the PEM task, ethnic differences and limitations in the statistical analysis can possibly account for the discrepancies with previous studies. All in all, this study suggests that there are no differences in cognition between VRF and MCI+VRF patients, while emphasizing the need for and more research into the cognitive consequences of comorbid MCI and VRF both in the Greek population and internationally.Show less
