Plasma homocysteine levels and cognitive status in long-term stay geriatric patients: a cross-sectional study

Cognitive state of patients of the highest Hcys tertile was significantly impaired, compared with other groups (p < 0.0001) and characterized by a worse nutritional status. Pearson's correlation coefficient for Hcys and MMSE resulted −0.251 (p = 0.0005). The linear regression model for MMSE showed that homocysteine is significantly associated with MMSE: mean MMSE score of patients with homocysteine >13.7 was significantly lower than the mean MMSE of patients with homocysteine ≤8.5, after controlling for all other parameters in the regression equation (beta = −2.7685, p = 0.007). We conclude that in our sample of patients, Hcys was associated with cognitive impairment. Hcys levels >13.7 μmol/l remained a significant independent parameter associated with the severity of cognitive impairment, after controlling for other confounders. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying such interrelations may have research and interventional implications.