Sex-specific nonlinear associations between serum lipids and different domains of cognitive function in middle to older age individuals

To examine how serum lipids relates to specific cognitive ability domains between the men and women in Chinese middle to older age individuals. A complete lipid panel was obtained from 1444 individuals, ages 50–65, who also underwent a selection of cognitive tests. Participants were 584 men and 860 women from Linyi city, Shandong province. Multiple linear regression analyses examined serum lipids level as quadratic predictors of sex-specific measure of performance in different cognitive domains, which were adjusted for sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics. In men, a significant quadratic effect of total cholesterol (TC) was identified for Digit Symbol (B = −0.081, P = 0.044) and also quadratic effect of low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) was identified for Trail Making Test B (B = −0.082, P = 0.045). Differently in women, there were significant quadratic associations between high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and multiple neuropsychological tests. The nonlinear lipid-cognition associations differed between men and women and were specific to certain cognitive domains and might be of potential relevance for prevention and therapy of cognitive decline.