ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Multimorbidity (the co-occurrence of multiple chronic conditions) is increasingly common, especially among people with dementia. Few neuroimaging studies have explored amyloid biomarkers in people with multimorbidity. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to conduct the first study of the association between multimorbidity and cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-ß42 (CSF Aß). METHOD: The European Prevention of Alzheimer's Dementia (EPAD) Longitudinal Cohort Study V500.0 dataset includes volunteers aged ≥50 years from 12 sites. Participants undergo detailed phenotyping, including CSF measures and a self-reported medical history. Using logistic and linear regression analyses, we explored the association between multimorbidity and continuous chronic condition count with CSF Aß positivity (Aß42 <1000pg/ml) and continuous CSF Aß concentration. All models were adjusted for age, sex, APOE status, education, and family history of dementia. RESULTS: Among 447 eligible participants without dementia, the mean (SD) age was 66.6 (6.6) years, 234 (52.3%) were women, and 157 (35.1%) were amyloid positive. With chronic conditions regarded as pseudo-continuous, each additional condition carried a decreased likelihood of amyloid positivity (ORâ=â0.82, 95% CI: 0.68-0.97; pâ=â0.026). With CSF Aß as a continuous variable, each additional condition was associated with an increase of 54.2 pg/ml (95% CI: 9.9-98.5, pâ=â0.017). Having ≥2 conditions was inversely associated with amyloid positivity (OR 0.59, 95% CI: 0.37-0.95, pâ=â0.030) compared to one or none. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that the established association between multimorbidity and dementia may be due to a pathway other than amyloid. However, this cross-sectional study does not allow us to make causal inferences. Longitudinal work is required to confirm the inverse association found.
