Correlations Between Body Mass Index, Smoking, And Cognitive Decline

This study investigates the correlations between Body Mass Index (BMI), smoking habits, and cognitive decline in a sample of 95 subjects (80 patients with cardiovascular involvement and 15 controls) recruited from the Clinical Psychiatric Hospital in Iași, Romania. The research highlights that both obesity and smoking are significant modifiable risk factors for cognitive impairment and dementia. BMI and Cognition: A significant negative correlation was found between BMI and global cognitive scores on the MMSE (r = -0.783, p 0.0001) and MOCA (r = -0.598, p 0.0001) tests. Specific Cognitive Domains: Higher BMI values were specifically linked to deficits in orientation, attention, and recent memory. The MOCA test appeared slightly more sensitive than the MMSE in detecting BMI-related cognitive shifts. Impact of Smoking: Patients with cognitive deterioration showed a significantly higher average of cigarettes smoked per day compared to the control group. A negative correlation was established between the intensity of smoking and cognitive performance, suggesting that higher tobacco consumption predicts greater cognitive deficit. Conclusions: The results provide evidence that elevat