The direct visualization of retinal vessels provides a unique opportunity to study cerebral small vessel disease, because these vessels share many features. 2 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 490
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
We investigated the nature of the relationship between depression and vascular diseases by reviewing epidemiological, clinical, neuroimaging and neuropathology studies which have reported on the relationship of depression to coronary artery disease, stroke disease, alterations in blood pressure, vascular dementia, diabetes mellitus and cholesterol levels and by reviewing potential mechanisms by which depression could be associated with vascular diseases. 2 key findings →
Design: systematic review
Evidence: high
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Atherosclerosis of the intracranial arteries is an independent and important risk factor for dementia, suggesting potentially reversible pathways unrelated to Alzheimer pathology and stroke through which vascular changes may influence dementia risk. 2 key findings →
Design: longitudinal study
Participants: 200
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
64/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 64 out of 100.
·
JAMA neurology
·
2018-01-01
It is associated with metabolic syndrome, incident diabetes, carotid atherosclerosis, and endothelial dysfunction, conditions that in turn are strongly linked with brain damage and cognitive impairment. 5 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 766
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
63/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 63 out of 100.
·
BMJ
·
2001-06-16
People with raised systolic blood pressure (≥160 mm Hg) or high serum cholesterol concentration (≥6.5 mmol/l) in midlife had a significantly higher risk of Alzheimer's disease in later life, even after adjustment for age, body mass index, education, vascular events, smoking status, and alcohol consumption, than those with normal systolic blood pressure (odds ratio 2.3, 95% confidence interval 1.0 to 5.5) or serum cholesterol (odds ratio 2.1, 1.0 to 4.4). 5 key findings →
Participants: 1,449
Evidence: low
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Free full text
Vascular Dementia (VaD) occurs due to cerebrovascular insufficiency, which leads to decreased blood circulation to the brain, thereby resulting in mental disabilities. 5 key findings →
Evidence: low
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Subclinical structural brain abnormalities in high-functioning older adults can increase the risk of developing physical disabilities and declining in motor performance. 1 key finding →
Design: longitudinal study
Participants: 2,450
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
61/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 61 out of 100.
·
Neurology
·
2025-03-06
We included 147,986 participants (Chinese [n = 6,034], Filipino [n = 4,649], Japanese [n = 3,099], South Asian [n = 996], non-Latino White [n = 133,208]); the mean baseline age ranged from 69 to 72 years, and the percentage of female participants ranged from 40% to 63% across groups. 5 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 6,034
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Free full text
60/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 60 out of 100.
·
Stroke
·
2025-03-07
Among 4712 participants (59% female; mean age, 74 years), 193 ischemic strokes and 769 dementia cases were ascertained over a median follow-up of 8.3 years. 5 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 4,712
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Free full text
After propensity score matching, each group consisted of 15901 patients. 5 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 15,901
Evidence: high
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Free full text
60/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 60 out of 100.
·
JAMA Network Open
·
2026-04-16
A total of 42 342 participants from the pooled cohorts were included (mean [SD] age, 61.3 [9.8] years; 55.0% female). 5 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 342
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Free full text
Consumption of up to three servings of wine daily is associated with a lower risk of AD in elderly individuals without the APOE epsilon-4 allele. 5 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 260
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Elevated midlife blood pressures, and the resulting increased white matter hyperintensities, increase the risk for MCI in a group of community-dwelling older men to at least the same degree as apolipoprotein E4 genotype. 5 key findings →
Design: longitudinal study
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
60/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 60 out of 100.
·
Age and ageing
·
2011-09-28
We conclude that smaller PFAv may contribute to slower gait through slower information processing. 4 key findings →
Design: longitudinal study
Participants: 214
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Hyperhomocysteinemia is associated with an increased risk of vascular disease, and recent results suggest that it also could increase the risk of dementia. 4 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 1,241
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Among 251 patients examined 3 months after the onset of acute ischemic stroke, we diagnosed dementia in 66 (26.3%) by using modified DSM-III-R criteria based on neuropsychological, neurological, functional, and psychiatric examinations. 4 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 251
Evidence: low
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
59/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 59 out of 100.
·
Stroke
·
2025-03-10
We identified 1143 dementia-free individuals with acute stroke during follow-up: 1061 (92.8%) ischemic, 82 (7.2%) hemorrhagic, 49.9% female, and 30.8% Black. 5 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Free full text
The telmisartan group had the lowest risk of all dementias (telmisartan vs NT-ARB: hazard ratio [HR]: 0.78; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.60 to 1.01; telmisartan vs angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor: HR: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.48 to 0.94). 5 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 39,665
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Free full text
The three year results of the LADIS study suggest that in older adults who seek medical attention for non-disabling complaints, severe age related changes in white matter independently and strongly predict rapid global functional decline. 3 key findings →
Participants: 633
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Since NOACs were introduced, there has been an increase in newly diagnosed patients with AF at risk of stroke receiving guideline-recommended therapy, predominantly driven by increased use of NOACs and reduced use of VKA±AP or AP alone. 2 key findings →
Participants: 5,500
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
59/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 59 out of 100.
·
Diabetes care
·
2020-09-23
Older people with diabetes receiving metformin have slower cognitive decline and lower dementia risk. 5 key findings →
Participants: 1,037
Evidence: high
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
In ARIC (n = 1,736, mean age 63, 58.8% female, 48.7% non-Hispanic White individuals, median follow-up 18.6 years), the dementia incidence rate was 10.4 (95% CI, 9.2-11.6) per 1,000 person-years. 5 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 1,736
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Free full text
People with severe mental illnesses (SMIs), including schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and bipolar disorder (BD), experience elevated rates of physical comorbidity and premature mortality. 3 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 694,086
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
Free full text
57/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 57 out of 100.
·
JAMA neurology
·
2014-02-01
Elevated cerebral Aβ level was associated with cholesterol fractions in a pattern analogous to that found in coronary artery disease. 5 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 33
Evidence: moderate
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
57/100
✓ Peer-reviewed
alzhub usefulness score 57 out of 100.
·
Sleep
·
2013-05-01
Study objective Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) contributes to the development of systemic hypertension, and hypertension strongly predicts the development of white matter change (WMC). 2 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 289
Evidence: low
Full summary, score breakdown and related studies →
Original source
How the 0–100 score works — and why some entries are capped
This is alzhub's own score. It is not an official metric, not an impact factor,
and no journal, publisher or ranking body endorses it. We built it so that a reader who is not a
scientist can tell a landmark trial from a conference abstract without having to already know the
difference. Every point comes from one of 20 components, all of them printed on the study itself,
so you can disagree with our arithmetic rather than having to trust the total.
- Journal tier up to 10 pts
- Journal's citation record up to 4 pts
- Study design up to 12 pts
- Strength of evidence up to 5 pts
- Peer-review validation up to 10 pts
- How recent up to 5 pts
- Sample size up to 4 pts
- Effect reported up to 3 pts
- Studied in people up to 3 pts
- Randomised / blinded up to 2 pts
- Times cited up to 7 pts
- Citations per year up to 5 pts
- Impact for its field and year up to 6 pts
- Cited by studies here up to 6 pts
- Still being cited up to 4 pts
- Senior author's track record up to 4 pts
- Institution's track record up to 3 pts
- Multi-centre collaboration up to 3 pts
- Indexed in PubMed up to 2 pts
- Free to read up to 2 pts
Journals are placed in ordered tiers, never given a numeric impact factor — we
could not verify current impact factors from a source we control, and an invented one would be
worse than none. Tier 1 is the top-tier general journals (NEJM, The Lancet, JAMA, Nature, Science,
Nature Medicine); tier 2 is the leading specialty journals; tier 3 is every other peer-reviewed
journal. A separate part scores how much the journal's own papers are cited, which tells the
tier-3 journals apart.
Two rules we don't bend. First, we never fill in a
missing value: if a record does not state a sample size or a design, that component scores
zero, and if we simply have no data for a part, such as a citation count, that part is left out and
the study is scored on the parts we could check. The study card says which. Second, anything that is not a peer-reviewed
article is capped at 16/100 and carries a warning chip — so a conference abstract or
a company press release can never outrank a peer-reviewed paper, no matter how good it looks.
We rank a rigorous null result — a good trial showing that something does not
work — above an early positive finding. Someone deciding whether to buy a supplement is served by
that, and the rigour is already counted by the design and journal components.
The score is computed from the published data alone and is
reproducible: the same file always yields the same numbers.
See the whole rubric drawn out →
— four charts covering all 31,380 studies: how the scores are spread and where the cap
bites, which of the 20 components the library is strong and weak on, which subjects rest on
stronger evidence, and what kinds of study each subject is actually built from.