{"doi":"10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.0527","title":"Cardiovascular Health and Biomarkers of Neurodegenerative Disease in Older Adults","abstract":"Importance: Cardiovascular health (CVH), defined by the American Heart Association as Life's Simple 7 to promote a healthy lifestyle and manage vascular risk factors, has been associated with a low risk of Alzheimer disease and less vascular dementia. However, the association between CVH and biomarkers of neurodegeneration remains less understood. Objective: To investigate the association of CVH with serum biomarkers of neurodegeneration, including neurofilament light chain (NfL) and total tau (t-tau). Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study was conducted within the biracial, population-based Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP) of adults aged 65 years or older between 1993 and 2012. Participants who had measured serum NfL and t-tau levels and data on all components of the CVH score were included. The statistical analysis was conducted from April 10 to September 26, 2024. Exposure: The CVH score includes 7 components: a healthy diet; regular exercise; normal body mass index; nonsmoking status; and the absence of dyslipidemia, diabetes, and hypertension. The scores were divided into 3 groups from lowest to highest CVH (0-6 points, 7-9 points, and 10-14 points). Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome was the association of CVH score with serum biomarkers of NfL and t-tau as measured using linear regression and mixed-effects models. Results: A total of 1018 CHAP participants were included in the analysis (mean [SD] age, 73.1 [6.1] years; 625 female [61.4%]; 610 Black or African American [59.9%] and 408 White [40.1%]). Participants with a high CVH score (ie, 10-14 points) were predominantly White (151 [64.3%]) and had a higher education (mean [SD], 13.6 [3.7] years). Compared with participants with low CVH scores (ie, 0-6 points), those with CVH scores of 10 to 14 points had significantly lower serum levels of NfL (relative difference, -18.9%; β = -0.091; SE, 0.025). A higher CVH score was associated with a slower annual increase in NfL levels as participants aged (relative difference in rate, -1.7%; β = -0.008; SE, 0.004). Cardiovascular health was not associated with serum levels of t-tau. Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that promoting CVH in older adults may help alleviate the burden of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly among Black adults, who are known to experience a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease.","journal":"JAMA Network Open","year":2025,"id":513723,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9653,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":277082,"name":"Charles DeCarli","orcid":"0000-0003-1914-2693","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":38611,"name":"Klodian Dhana","orcid":"0000-0002-6397-7009","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":668400,"name":"Pankaja Desai","orcid":"0000-0002-0904-5905","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":894350,"name":"Ted Kheng Siang Ng","orcid":"0000-0001-7348-0410","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":248323,"name":"Denis A. Evans","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1212412,"name":"Kumar B. Rajan","orcid":"0000-0001-7685-2101","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":844215,"name":"Anisa Dhana","orcid":"0000-0001-5073-8669","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":42,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:48:23.284782Z","pmid":"40067299","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}