Incidence of Newly-Diagnosed Dementia After COVID-19 Infection versus Acute Upper Respiratory Infection: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Year: 2023
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: There is emerging evidence that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is giving rise to seemingly unrelated clinical conditions long after the infection has resolved. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to examine whether COVID-19 is associated with an increased risk of dementia including Alzheimer's disease. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study is based on longitudinal data from the IQVIATM Disease Analyzer database and included patients aged≥65 with an initial diagnosis of COVID-19 or acute upper respiratory infection (AURI) from 1,293 general practitioner practices between January 2020 and November 2021. AURI patients were matched 1 : 1 with COVID-19 patients using propensity scores based on sex, age, index quarter, health insurance type, the number of doctor visits, and comorbidities associated with dementia risk. Incidence rates of newly-diagnosed dementia were calculated using the person-years method. Poisson regression models were used to compute the incidence rate ratios (IRR). RESULTS: The present study included 8,129 matched pairs (mean age 75.1 years, 58.9% females). After 12 months of follow-up, 1.84% of the COVID-19 patients and 1.78% of the AURI patients had been diagnosed with dementia. The Poisson regression model resulted in an IRR of 1.05 (95% CI: 0.85-1.29). CONCLUSION: This study did not find any association between COVID-19 infection and one-year dementia incidence after controlling for all common risk factors for dementia. Because dementia is a progressive disease, which can be difficult to diagnose, a longer follow-up period might offer a better insight into a possible association between COVID-19 infection and an increased incidence of dementia cases in the future.
Source: Journal of Alzheimer s Disease
DOI: 10.3233/jad-221271
Institutions: IQVIA (United Kingdom), Université Paris Cité, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Fernand-Widal, Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Anglia Ruskin University, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Neurology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4376640234