This page is alzhub.org's plain-English summary of a published study, not the paper itself. It is generated from the record we hold for this study, sourced and linked below — check the original for the full text and methods.

50/100

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 50 out of 100. Long-term cohort studies

Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis

Plain-language summary

Mid-life obesity is an established risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia, whereas late-life obesity has been proposed as a protective state. Weight loss, which predates cognitive decline, might explain this obesity paradox on AD risk. We aimed to assess the impact of late life obesity on brain structure taking into account weight loss as a potential confounder.

What this study adds

Evidence grade: Low

The record lists 162 participants. This study assessed the impact of late-life obesity on brain structure in 162 elderly controls from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, taking into account weight loss as a potential confounder. The authors aimed to see if the proposed protective effect of late-life obesity on Alzheimer's disease risk could be explained by weight loss before cognitive decline.

Taken from this record’s own fields, not from reading the paper. The grade is assigned from the abstract’s wording; what that means.

Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris

APA 7th

Pegueroles, J., Jiménez, A., Vilaplana, E., Montal, V., Carmona-Iragui, M., Pané, A., et al. (2018). Obesity and Alzheimer's disease, does the obesity paradox really exist? A magnetic resonance imaging study. Oncotarget. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.26162

Vancouver

Pegueroles J, Jiménez A, Vilaplana E, Montal V, Carmona-Iragui M, Pané A, et al. Obesity and Alzheimer's disease, does the obesity paradox really exist? A magnetic resonance imaging study. Oncotarget. 2018. doi:10.18632/oncotarget.26162. PMID: 30410669.

BibTeX

@article{pegueroles2018-30410669,
  author  = {Pegueroles, J. and Jiménez, A. and Vilaplana, E. and Montal, V. and Carmona-Iragui, M. and Pané, A. and Alcolea, D. and Videla, L. and others},
  title   = {{Obesity and Alzheimer's disease, does the obesity paradox really exist? A magnetic resonance imaging study}},
  journal = {Oncotarget},
  year    = {2018},
  doi     = {10.18632/oncotarget.26162},
  pmid    = {30410669},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.26162}
}

Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.

How to read this study

Design: our record does not state a study design, so check the methods section of the original before weighing the result.
Size: the record lists 162 participants. Ask whether that is enough for the question, and who they were.
Effect: the record gives no effect size, so the summary above cannot say how large any difference was.

What the evidence grade means here

This page is graded low. alzhub.org assigns the grade automatically from keywords in the abstract, not from reading the paper. Low means the abstract matched neither pattern. It is the default label, and it does not mean the work is poor; many sound lab and imaging papers land here. It can add at most 5 of the 100 points in the study score, and it is a label about design, not a verdict on whether the findings are true.

New to reading papers? Six questions to ask of any Alzheimer’s study · how we score.

Key findings

Weight loss, which predates cognitive decline, might explain this obesity paradox on AD risk.
We aimed to assess the impact of late life obesity on brain structure taking into account weight loss as a potential confounder.
We included 162 elderly controls of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) with available 3T MRI scan.
Significant weight loss was defined as relative weight loss ≥5% between the baseline and last follow-up visit.

Why it matters

This study assessed the impact of late-life obesity on brain structure in 162 elderly controls from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, taking into account weight loss as a potential confounder. The authors aimed to see if the proposed protective effect of late-life obesity on Alzheimer's disease risk could be explained by weight loss before cognitive decline.

Study details

Participants162
Evidence strengthLow

How this study scored 50/100

Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, effect reported and randomized / blinded because the record does not state it.

Component	Points	Why
Journal tier	7 / 10	Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Oncotarget)
Journal's citation record	2 / 4	Oncotarget: journal h-index 222 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29)
Study design	0 / 12	No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Strength of evidence	1 / 5	Rated “low” in our summary
Peer-review validation	10 / 10	Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent	2 / 5	2018 — within 10 year(s) of the newest study here
Sample size	2 / 4	162 participants
Effect reported	0 / 3	No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Studied in people	3 / 3	Studied in people (participant count stated)
Randomized / blinded	0 / 2	No randomization or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Times cited	4 / 7	Cited 92 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10)
Citations per year	3 / 5	9.2 citations a year over 10 year(s) since 2018
Impact for its field and year	3 / 6	Cited 5.6× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI)
Cited by studies here	1 / 6	Cited by 2 other studies in this library
Still being cited	2 / 4	Cited 34 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex)
Senior author's track record	3 / 4	Last-listed author Juan Fortea: h-index 72 (OpenAlex, whole career)
Institution's track record	1 / 3	Hospital Clínic de Barcelona: institution h-index 827 (OpenAlex)
Multicenter collaboration	2 / 3	OpenAlex lists 8 institution(s) in 1 country
Indexed in PubMed	2 / 2	Indexed in PubMed (PMID 30410669)
Free to read	2 / 2	Free to read
Total	50 / 100	—

What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →

Read the original

Full text: free to read — OpenAlex lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 6 Feb 1020).

Studies in the library that share something with this one. The line above each title says what.

Studies this one cites

Referenced by this study and also in the alzhub library, so you can read them here.

Later studies that cite this one

2 studies in the alzhub library list this one in their references.

Related studies in Long-term cohort studies from nearby years

Also in Long-term cohort studies

54 studies in the library are filed under Long-term cohort studies with no topic tag they share with another; these are this study's neighbours in a fixed tour of them. The Long-term cohort studies hub.

Similar studies

More on Long-term cohort studies

See all studies in Long-term cohort studies →