A new study suggests middle-aged smokers are considerably more likely than nonsmokers to experience memory loss and confusion. They also suggested that the chance of cognitive decline is lower for those who have quit smoking recently. The research by The Ohio State University is the first to examine the relationship between smoking and cognitive decline using a one-question self-assessment asking people if they’ve experienced worsening or more frequent memory loss or confusion. The study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Lead author of the study, Jenna Rajczyk said the findings build on previous research that established relationships between smoking and Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia and could point to an opportunity to identify signs of trouble earlier in life. A Ph.D. student in Ohio State’s College of Public Health, Rajczyk and senior author Jeffrey Wing, assistant professor of epidemiology, said the study result is also a piece of evidence that quitting smoking is good not just for respiratory and cardiovascular reasons but to preserve neurological health.
Wing said, “The association we saw was most significant in the 45-49 age group, suggesting that quitting at that stage of life may benefit cognitive health.” He said a similar difference wasn’t found in the oldest group in the study, which could mean that putting earlier affords people greater benefits. The data for the study came from the national 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.
It allowed the research team to compare subjective cognitive decline (SCD) measures for current smokers, recent former smokers, and those who had quit years earlier. The analysis included 136,018 people 45 and older, and about 11 per cent reported SCD. The prevalence of SCD among smokers in the study was almost 1.9 times that of nonsmokers. The prevalence among those who had quit less than 10 years ago was 1.5 Tims that of nonsmokers. Rajczyk said, “These findings could imply that the time since smoking cessation does matter and may be linked to cognitive outcomes. This is a simple assessment that could be easily done routinely, and at younger ages, than we typically start to see cognitive declines that rise to the level of a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia. It’s not an intensive battery of questions. It’s more a personal reflection of your cognitive status to determine if you’re feeling like you’re not as sharp as you once were.”