medRxivNov 9, 2026, 22:19 GMT

Blood pressure and social factors linked to dementia progression

Higher top blood-pressure readings were linked to faster dementia diagnosis, with a hazard ratio—a relative rate—of 1.09 per 10 mmHg.

Paper by Silvia Miramontes, Erin L. Ferguson, Scott C. Zimmerman, +6Medellena Maria Glymour · University of California, San Francisco · Boston University

Our read

Populations

Studied:: Preprint: cohort study of 6,529 patients with mild cognitive impairment
What changed:: Dementia diagnosis rate was higher with higher systolic blood pressure (hazard ratio 1.09 per 10 mmHg)
The catch:: Differences in access to care or diagnostic recording may have contributed to the links
In the record:: The 1,353rd paper on body mass index with results in people; 8,873 on record in all.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper

At UCSF Health, 6,529 patients aged 50 and older with newly diagnosed mild cognitive impairment—memory or thinking difficulties—were studied in an observational analysis of health records from 2010–2024. Their average age was 70.9 years, and 53.5% were female. Researchers tracked dementia diagnoses until diagnosis, death or the last recorded visit.

Higher systolic pressure—the top blood-pressure reading—was associated with a higher dementia diagnosis rate after adjustment for other measured factors. Higher body mass index, a measure of weight relative to height, was linked to lower rates in both sexes, more strongly in males. Widowed patients had higher rates than married patients. Patients preferring non-English languages had higher rates than English speakers. Latinx and Asian patients had higher rates than White patients. Neighborhood disadvantage showed no clear association.

Why it matters

For older adults with mild cognitive impairment, the authors suggest that combining clinical and social indicators may help identify higher-risk patients earlier and support equitable dementia prevention.

Caveats

Diagnoses came from health-record codes, so differences in access to care or diagnostic recording may have contributed to the links. The analysis covered one health system and is a preprint, not yet peer-reviewed.