Natalia Gonçalves

University of São Paulo | USP · Faculty of Medicine (FM)

Objectives: The primary aim of this study is to assess the relationship between different aspects of physical activity (PA) and dementia occurrence in older adults from Brazil. Methods: It is a secondary analysis of the first wave data derived from the ELSI-Brazil study, a longitudinal study of aging in Brazil with a representative sample of Brazil...

OBJECTIVE The rise in dementia prevalence, particularly in lower‐ and middle‐income countries (LMIC), places a significant burden on healthcare systems. However, comprehensive data on dementia hospital admissions are scarce. METHODS We analyzed admission rates for dementia, cost of hospital admissions, lengths of hospital stay, and in‐hospital dea...

Objective It is estimated that 2% of dementia cases worldwide could be prevented with increases in physical activity. However, there is little evidence of the association between vigorous physical activity (VPA) and cognitive performance. This study aimed to investigate the association of moderate physical activity (MPA) and VPA with cognitive perf...

Background Thyroid dysfunction has been associated with cognitive decline and dementia. However, the role of subtle thyroid hormone alterations in cognitive function is still debatable. Methods Participants without overt thyroid dysfunction aged 35–74 years at baseline were evaluated in 3 study waves (2008–2010, 2012–2014, and 2017–2019). We asses...

The EAT–Lancet Commission proposed a planetary health diet to improve human health within planetary boundaries; however, little is known about the association between adherence to this diet and cognitive decline. We used data from three waves of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health to evaluate the association between the planetary healt...

Background Adherence to a healthy diet has been associated with lower risk of dementia and cognitive decline. Furthermore, low consumption of fruits and vegetables has been associated with lower cognitive performance. Rural Brazilians have several factors related to poor diet quality, such as low education and income.Additionally, rural residents o...

Background Education is a protective factor against cognitive impairment. Research on education and cognitive function has focused on high‐income countries, where education is higher. Thus, it is important to investigate this association in a context of lower education levels, such as the one in middle‐income countries. We use nationally representa...

Background Lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors were combined in the Life’s simple 7 (LS7) index to evaluate cardiovascular health, and this index has been previously associated with cognitive decline. The Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) is an update of LS7, which now includes sleep health as an additional factor. We aimed to verify the association b...

Background Thyroid dysfunction has been associated with cognitive decline and dementia. However, the role of subtle thyroid hormone alterations in cognitive function is still debatable. Additionally, most studies have been conducted in high‐income countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal association between baseline thyr...

Background Neuropsychological assessment is still vastly based on a nomothetic approach. However, middle‐aged and older adults might start to reveal higher intra‐individual cognitive variability (IICV) as an early sign of cognitive impairment, even when still cognitively normal. IICV refers to inconsistency in function and has been related to an in...

Older adults in Brazil and Mexico have high lifetime tobacco exposure, which is an important modifiable dementia risk factor. They also have lower levels of education, which is associated with lower cognitive reserve. This study examines how tobacco use is associated with cognition and how this association differs by education among older adults in...

Latin America (LA) has the highest dementia burden globally among people 60 years or older, with a prevalence of 8.5%. However, there is little evidence of the disparities in cognitive performance in rural and urban areas in LA. We use nationally representative data from the two largest countries in LA, Brazil and Mexico, to assess if rurality is a...

Background Life's Simple 7, a lifestyle and cardiovascular index associated with cognition, has been updated to Life's Essential 8 (LE8) to include sleep. LE8 has been related to cardiovascular outcomes but its association with cognition is unclear. Methods In this longitudinal analysis of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA‐Bra...

Education is protective against cognitive impairment. We used nationally representative data from Mexico and Brazil to assess the association between education and cognitive function. The sample included adults ≥ 50 years from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI) and the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). Participants were classifie...

Background Approximately 77% of older adults in Brazil with dementia have not been diagnosed, indicating a major public health issue. Previous dementia epidemiologic studies from Brazil were based on data from one geopolitical region. We aimed to estimate the general and subgroup‐specific (age, education, and sex) prevalence of dementia diagnosis a...

Background & aims: Folate (vitamin B9) is an essential co-factor for one-carbon metabolism. Controversial evidence has emerged regarding the association between folate and cognitive performance. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between baseline dietary folate intake and cognitive decline in a population exposed to mandatory...

Introduction: Cognitive impairment is common after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. However, associations between post-hospital discharge risk factors and cognitive trajectories have not been explored. Methods: A total of 1105 adults (mean age ± SD 64.9 ± 9.9 years, 44% women, 63% White) with severe coronav...

Background Approximately 77% of older adults with dementia in Brazil have not been diagnosed, indicating a major public health issue. Previous epidemiological dementia studies in Brazil were based on data from one geopolitical region. Methods We aimed to estimate the general and subgroup-specific (age, education, and sex) prevalence of dementia an...

Objectives: Excess sugar consumption, particularly in sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), has been linked to poor cognitive performance. We aimed to assess the association of consumption of total sugar, as well as the consumption of SSBs, solid desserts, and 100% fruit juice with cognitive performance among older adults. Methods: Consumption of to...

Importance: Although consumption of ultraprocessed food has been linked to higher risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and obesity, little is known about the association of consumption of ultraprocessed foods with cognitive decline. Objective: To investigate the association between ultraprocessed food consumption and cognitive dec...

Consumption of ultra‐processed foods (UPF) has progressively increased worldwide in the last 30 years. High intake of UPF is associated with cardiovascular disease and cancer and hypothesized to induce systemic inflammation and oxidative stress. Although UPF may also be a risk factor for cognitive decline through these pathways, little is lnown abo...

Background The imbalance between pro- and anti-inflammatory immune responses plays a pivotal role in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) development and progression. To clarify the pathophysiological mechanisms of this disease, we performed a temporal analysis of immune response-mediated inflammatory progression in a cigarette smoke (CS)-i...

Background The inverse relationship between exercise capacity and its variation over time and both cardiovascular and all-cause mortality suggests the existence of an etiological nexus between cardiometabolic diseases and the molecular regulators of exercise capacity. Coordinated adaptive responses elicited by physical training enhance exercise per...

To describe the progression of parenchymal remodeling and metalloproteinases gene expression in earlier stages of emphysema, mice received porcine pancreatic elastase (PPE) instillation and Control groups received saline solution. After PPE instillation (1, 3, 6 hours, 3 and 21 days) we measured the mean linear intercept, the volume proportion of t...