Vascular Contributions to Cognitive Impairment and Brain Health

Updated: May 26, 2026

Illustration of vascular risk factors
  • This paper updates the 2011 Vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia scientific statement.
  • Age related cognitive impairment has been established as a multi etiology process driven by interactions between vascular factors and the interconnections of aging.
  • The recognition that vascular factors are involved not only in VCID by also in Alzheimer’s Disease, has led to the understanding that cognitive impairment as we age is a multiple etiology process (i.e., mixed, or co-existing brain pathologies) and thus must be multi-mechanistic in origin.