Cardiovascular health, infection burden, and incident dementia in the UK Biobank

INTRODUCTIONAmong older adults, total and hospitalized infection may be associated with incidence of all-cause and Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementias, with variation by cardiovascular health (CVH). METHODSWe used Cox proportional hazards (PH) models to examine the relationships between International Classification of Diseases-10th revision (ICD-10)-specific viral and bacterial infectious agents and incident all-cause and AD dementia among 355,046 UK Biobank participants & GE;50 years at baseline. Life's Essential 8 (LE8) index reflected CVH. RESULTSIn both sexes, total infection burden (yes vs. no) was associated with all-cause dementia, with significant interactions by LE8 tertiles, whereby this relationship was significant only in the lowest LE8 tertile. Hospital-treated infection burden (yes vs no) was significantly related to all-cause and AD dementia, with no significant interaction with LE8 tertile. Age group patterns were detected. DISCUSSIONAD and all-cause dementia were related to hospital-treated infections, while CVH modified the relationship of total infection burden with all-cause dementia.Secondary analysis on >355,000 UK Biobank participants & GE;50 years at baseline.Alzheimer's disease and all-cause dementia are both related to hospital-treated infection.Cardiovascular health modifies association of infection burden with all-cause dementia. Highlights

Automated summary

This study found that among older adults, total and hospitalized infection may be associated with incidence of all-cause and Alzheimer's disease dementias, with variation by cardiovascular health.