{"doi":"10.1002/trc2.70021","title":"The association of cholesterol levels with memory and memory change over a 14‐year period in a US national cohort","abstract":"Abstract INTRODUCTION The impact of cholesterol on late‐life cognition remains controversial. We investigated the association of high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL‐C) and non–HDL‐C with memory in a nationally representative cohort. METHODS Health and Retirement Study (HRS) participants ( N = 13,258) aged 50+ (mean age: 67.2 years) followed from 2006 to 2020 provided cholesterol measures every 4 years and cognitive assessments biennially. Linear mixed models predicted memory scores using both baseline and time‐updated cholesterol values. RESULTS Higher baseline HDL‐C (mean: 53.9 mg/dL) predicted better memory scores ( β : 0.05, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.03 to 0.08), but not memory change. Baseline non–HDL‐C (mean: 143 mg/dL) predicted poorer memory scores ( β : −0.01, 95% CI: −0.02 to 0.00), but not memory change. Time‐updated HDL‐C predicted better memory ( β : 0.02, 95% CI: 0.00 to 0.04), but non–HDL‐C showed no such associations. DISCUSSION While higher peripheral HDL‐C is linked to better memory, the small effect sizes and absence of associations of HDL‐C and non–HD‐CL with memory change suggests that peripheral cholesterol has a small effect on the variation of memory scores. Highlights Higher HDL‐C levels predict better memory scores but not memory change across 14 years of follow‐up. Baseline higher LDL‐C levels predict poorer memory scores across time, but not memory change. The small effects and absence of consistent association between cholesterol levels and memory change suggest that cholesterol plays a minor role in cognitive decline.","journal":"Alzheimer s & Dementia Translational Research & Clinical Interventions","year":2025,"id":559895,"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":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.5629,"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":2812,"name":"Umair Khan","orcid":"0000-0003-0206-0667","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1031101,"name":"Erin L. Ferguson","orcid":"0000-0003-3136-0001","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":2824,"name":"Marina Sirota","orcid":"0000-0002-7246-6083","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":106142,"name":"M. Maria Glymour","orcid":"0000-0001-9644-3081","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1165531,"name":"Silvia Miramontes","orcid":"0000-0001-5805-0500","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":33,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:55:39.010633Z","pmid":"39759951","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":[]}