Objective To investigate the correlation between hypertension development and the progression of MCI for middle aged and elderly people. Methods A population-based longitudinal cognition survey of people aged 55+ was conducted. The hypertension onset age was estimated by self-reported information and medical insurance card records. In order to study the effect of later onset of hypertension on dementia, the incidence of dementia was compared between the two groups. Results A total of 277

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... nsive mild cognitive impairment (MCI) participants without dementia were followed for 6 years. Overall, 56 MCI participants (20.22%) progressed to dementia (MCIp). The proportion of MCIp participants in the old-age onset hypertension group (≥ 65 years) was higher than that of middle-age onset one (27.0% vs 15.4%; X2 = 5.538, P = 0.019). And in the old-age onset hypertension group, the proportion of MCIp without diabetes mellitus was higher than those with diabetes mellitus (24.7% vs 12.6%; X2 = 5.321, P = 0.021), and the proportion of MCIp with increased pulse pressure was higher than those without increased pulse pressure (33.3% vs 15.4%; X2 = 3.902, P = 0.048). However, the multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that older age was the only risk for MCIp (OR=0.732, p=0.029). Conclusions These results suggest that, individuals with later onset hypertension may have greater cognition decline, even in cases with blood pressure maintained at 130/80 mmHg with antihypertensive management.