1. Introduction
Lifestyle and health-related factors represent an important
category of risk factors for cognitive aging among veterans.
Evidence is emerging supporting an association between
several health factors and behaviors with risk of cognitive
impairment and dementia including cardiovascular risk factors,
physical and cognitive activity, nutrition, sleep quality,
and smoking and alcohol use. Although veterans may be at
increased risk of cognitive aging because of a unique set of
military-related exposures [1], some lifestyle and healthrelated
risk factors may also be elevated in veterans such as
smoking and sleep disturbances [2,3]. It is estimated that in
the general population, lifestyle and health-related risk factors
may contribute to almost half of dementia cases [4],