Rates of dementia are higher among patients who are hospitalized with infection when compared to those without infection, according to a new study with 32 years of follow-up. The findings support the hypothesis that infection is linked to dementia onset, investigators say.
The researchers, from a variety of institutions and the National Institute on Aging, examined data from more than 15,000 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. Participants who had any hospitalization with infection were about 70% more likely to be diagnosed with dementia, they found.
Some infections were tied to greater risk than others. These included urinary tract, blood and circulatory system and hospital-acquired infections, noted Ryan T. Demmer, MPH, PhD, of Columbia University and the University of Minnesota.
The link between dementia and hospital infection was even stronger when the researchers removed dementia cases identified within three years of the hospitalization with infection. But dementia cases that occurred two decades after the hospitalization are “possibly less plausibly linked” to dementia, Demmer and colleagues reported.
The results were “modestly” affected by adjustments for age, sex, race and education, but did not change significantly when adjusted for genetic propensity toward Alzheimer’s disease and behavioral or vascular factors, the authors reported.
Full findings were published in JAMA Network Open.
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