Affiliations: [a] Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| [b] Department of Neurology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| [c] Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Daniel Bos, MD, PhD, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 10 7043488; Fax: +31 10 7044657; E-mail: d.bos@erasmusmc.nl.
Abstract: The association of smoking with preclinical cognitive decline remains unclear and may be modified by the APOE ɛ4 genotype. In 5,705 participants (mean age: 63.9±9.1 years; 57.4% women) from the population-based Rotterdam Study, we investigated the relationship between smoking and cognitive decline over a 5.5-year period and examined potential effect modification by APOE ɛ4 genotype. We found that current smoking was related to decline in global cognition [difference compared to never smoking: –0.06 (95% C.I.–0.10;–0.01)], as well as decline on specific cognitive tests including the Letter Digit Substitution Task, the 15-Word Learning Test, and the Purdue Pegboard. We found no evidence for effect modification by APOE ɛ4 genotype on this relation.
