Among adults with hypertension, intensive blood pressure (BP) control did not significantly reduced the risk of probable dementia, a new study concluded. Researchers studied the effect of intensive vs standard BP control on probable dementia from a randomized clinical trial conducted at 102 sites in the US and Puerto Rico among adults aged ≥50 years with hypertension but without diabetes or history of stroke. Participants were randomized to a systolic BP goal of either <120 mm Hg (intensive treatment group; n=4,678) or <140 mm Hg (standard treatment group; n=4,638). The primary cognitive outcome was occurrence of adjudicated probable dementia. Among the details:

• Among 9,361 randomized participants (mean age 67.9 years, 35.6% women), 8,563 (91.5%) completed at least 1 follow-up cognitive assessment.
• Median intervention period was 3.34 years.
• During a total median follow-up of 5.11 years, adjudicated probable dementia occurred in 149 participants in the intensive treatment groups vs 176 in the standard treatment group (7.2 vs 8.6 cases per 1,000 person-years).
• Intensive BP control significantly reduced the risk of mild cognitive impairment and the combined rate of mild cognitive impairment or probable dementia.