Target Belly Fat to Preserve Cognitive Function in Older Adults with Type 2 Diabetes

A study in Clinical Obesity suggests older adults with type 2 diabetes and normal body mass index (BMI) may be in greater danger of cognitive decline if they have elevated visceral fat area, reports Healio . Researchers assessed the cognitive function of 677 Asians 60 or older with type 2 diabetes and without dementia via the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status. Higher scores connoted greater cognitive function. BMI-based obesity was defined as a BMI of at least 23 kilograms/square meter and visceral fat area-based obesity as a visceral fat area of at least 100 square centimeters. "Our findings revealed that visceral fat area outperformed other surrogate indices of central obesity as an independent associate of reduced cognitive performance in older multiethnic Asians with type 2 diabetes, thus highlighting the adverse effect of visceral obesity on cognition," the authors wrote. "Assessment of visceral adiposity and interventions that target visceral adiposity may help to prevent cognitive decline in older adults with diabetes and reduce the global burden of dementia in aging populations."