CRP and Mental deterioration: Similarly, higher fibrinogen was significantly associated with a decline in cognitive ability as measured by DST (standardised β −0.107, p=0.001) and TMTB (standardised β −0.082, p=0.02), and higher CRP and TNF-α were significantly associated with cognitive decline as measured by DST (standardised βs −0.099, p=0.03; and −0.073, p=0.02, respectively).