Dementia Risk Higher After Hospital Stay With Infection
WASHINGTON — Being hospitalized with an infection raised the risk of patients’ subsequent dementia diagnosis, according to a new report.
For the purpose of the study, which was published in JAMA Network Open, researchers followed the stories of nearly 16,000 patients for three decades.
What they found was that those who were hospitalized with an infection had a 70% increase in their risk of subsequent dementia, according to Ryan Demmer, PhD, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Per 1,000 person-years, the researchers found that dementia rates were 23.6 events (95% CI, 22.3-25.0) for people who were hospitalized with infection earlier in life versus 5.7 (95% CI, 5.4-6.0) for people who never had in-hospital infections.
The findings support recent research showing that hospital-treated early and midlife infections may raise the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
