The Abbreviated Brain Care Score and Association With Incident Dementia, Stroke, and Late-Life Depression
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Objectives The full Brain Care Score (BCS), encompassing modifiable physical, lifestyle, and social/emotional risk factors, predicts dementia, stroke, and late-life depression (DSD). The aim of this study was to determine whether lifestyle and social-emotional elements alone predict DSD incidence. Methods Using UK Biobank (UKB) data, we computed an abbreviated BCS excluding physical factors (maximum 11 points), with higher scores indicating better brain care. Participants were categorized into low (1st quintile), medium (2nd–4th quintiles), and high (5th quintile) BCS groups. A multivariate Cox proportional hazard model assessed associations between BCSs and DSD incidence. Results Among 397,515 UKB participants (54% female, mean age 56 ± 8.1), medium (HR: 0.75 [95% CI 0.71–0.79]) and high (HR: 0.76 [0.71–0.81]) abbreviated BCSs were associated with 24% lower stroke risk ( p < 0.001). Dementia risk decreased by 20% (HR: 0.80 [0.75–0.86]) in the medium and 8% (HR: 0.92 [0.85–0.99]) in the high BCS groups ( p = 0.012). For LLD, the medium BCS group had 39% lower risk (HR: 0.61 [0.59–0.65]) and the high BCS group had 45% lower risk (HR: 0.55 [0.50–0.57]; p < 0.001). Discussion We found that higher scores on the abbreviated version of the BCS predicted a reduction of DSD risk. Future studies with diverse populations will increase generalizability.
Source: Neurology Open Access
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4416153319