Association between cardiovascular diseases and dementia among various age groups: a population-based cohort study in older adults

The link between cardiovascular (CV) risk factors or diseases and dementia is documented. There is conflicting evidence whether age moderates the association. We need to study this gap so that research and clinical initiatives target appropriate age groups. A cohort of 320,630 adult patients without dementia was built using Quebec healthcare databases (1998–2010). The CV risk factors were hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia, while diseases included stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), chronic heart failure (HF), and atrial fibrillation (AF). Dementia risk and CV risk factors or diseases were assessed using incidence rate ratios and Cox regression across age groups. The cohort presented by mainly female sex (67.7%) and mean age of 74.1 years. Incident rate of dementia increased with age, ranging from 4.1 to 93.5 per 1000 person-years. Diabetes, stroke, HF and AF were significantly associated with dementia risk, hazard ratios ranged from 1.08 to 3.54. The strength of association decreased in advanced age for diabetes, stroke and HF. The results suggest that prevention of diabetes, stroke, HF and AF are crucial to mitigate dementia risk. The pathophysiology of dementia in younger and older populations seems to differ, with less impact of CV risk factors in advanced age.