Neurobiology of Aging 26 (2005) 987–994 Vitamin E levels, cognitive impairment and dementia in older persons: the InCHIANTI study Antonio Cherubini a,∗,1 , Antonio Martin b,1 , Cristina Andres-Lacueva c , Angelo Di Iorio d , Marco Lamponi e , Patrizia Mecocci a , Benedetta Bartali e , Annamaria Corsi e , Umberto Senin a , Luigi Ferrucci e,f a Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, University of Perugia Medical School, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, via Brunamonti, Policlinico Monteluce, Padiglione E, Perugia 06122, Italy b Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA c Department of Nutrition and Food Science-CeRTA, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain d Geriatric Unit, Laboratory of Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Medicine and Aging, University “G. D’Annunzio” Chieti e Laboratory of Clinical Epidemiology, INRCA, Florence, Italy f Longitudinal Studies Section, Clinical Research Branch, National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA Received 25 February 2004; received in revised form 2 August 2004; accepted 23 September 2004 Abstract There is conflicting evidence that antioxidants contribute to maintaining cognitive function in elderly subjects. We investigated whether vitamin E plasma levels are related to the presence of dementia and cognitive impairment in a population-based cohort study conducted in Italy. A total of 1033 participants aged at least 65 years received clinical and neuropsychological examinations, donated blood for vitamin E analysis and had their diets assessed. Participants with plasma vitamin E levels in the bottom tertile had a significantly higher probability of being demented (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.0–7.1) and also of suffering from cognitive impairment (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.2–4.2) compared to those in the highest vitamin E tertile after adjustment for age, gender, education, lipid levels, energy intake, vitamin E intake, and smoking. This study supports the notion that higher vitamin E plasma levels might provide significant protection against cognitive impairment and dementia in elderly subjects. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Vitamin E; Antioxidant; Cognitive impairment; Dementia; Elderly; Epidemiological study 1. Introduction During the 20th century advances in public health and medicine greatly reduced the risk of death in children and younger adults, raising the life expectancy from about 45 to about 80 years. It is estimated that now about 15% of the sub- jects in the total population of the industrialized countries are aged 65 years and older, and their number is growing rapidly. Unfortunately, many older subjects are prevented from en- ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 075 5783839x3722; fax: +39 075 5730259. E-mail address: acherub@unipg.it (A. Cherubini). 1 These authors equally contributed to this research. joying these gained years of life due to the burden of chronic diseases and disability. Cognitive impairment and dementia, whose incidence and prevalence sharply increase with aging, are among the principal threats to a healthy and active life expectancy in old age. About 6% of subjects older than 65 years are demented [30] with Alzheimer’s disease being the most common form of dementia, which affects 47% of the people who reach 85 years of age [28,39]. Cognitive impair- ment not severe enough to fulfill the criteria for dementia affects between 10% and 24% of the subjects aged 65 years and over [14,52]. The number of elderly subjects who will suffer from cog- nitive impairment and dementia will further increase in the near future, as a consequence of the progressive aging of the 0197-4580/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2004.09.002