Characterising the covariance pattern between lifestyle factors and structural brain measures: a multivariable replication study of two independent ageing cohorts

Journal article

Modifiable lifestyle factors have been shown to promote healthy brain ageing. However, most studies to date have focused on one factor at a time. Given that lifestyle factors do not occur in isolation, multivariable analyses may provide a more realistic model of the impact of modifiable lifestyle factors on brain ageing. We examined the relationship between nine lifestyle factors and seven MRI-derived indices of brain structure using canonical correlation analysis (CCA). The resulting covariance pattern was then explored with Bayesian regressions. CCA analyses were first completed in a Danish cohort of older adults (n = 251) and then replicated in an independent cohort from the United Kingdom (n = 668). In both cohorts, the latent lifestyle factors were positively associated with the latent structural brain measures (UK: r = 0.37, p < 0.001; Denmark: r = 0.27, p < 0.001). In the cross-validation study, the correlation between lifestyle-brain latent factors was r = 0.10, p = 0.008. However, the pattern of univariate associations differed between datasets. Taken together, these findings suggest that lifestyle interventions would benefit from baseline characterisation and tailoring towards the study sample.

Authors: Demnitz, N; Hulme, OJ; Siebner, HR; Krogsgaard, MR; Ebmeier, KP

• Publication status: Not published
• Peer review status: Not peer reviewed
• Journal: SSRN
• Article number: 4360651
• Publication date: 2023-03-08
• DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4360651
• Language: English
• Keywords: MRI; white matter hyperintensities; FFR; old age; modifiable lifestyle factors