Association between Age at Diagnosis of Hyperlipidemia and Subsequent Risk of Dementia

Yang Pan; Jie Liang; Wenya Zhang; Darui Gao; Chenglong Li; Wuxiang Xie; Fanfan Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2024.01.029

Association between Age at Diagnosis of Hyperlipidemia and Subsequent Risk of Dementia

J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2024 Mar 4:104960. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2024.01.029. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yang Pan¹, Jie Liang¹, Wenya Zhang¹, Darui Gao², Chenglong Li², Wuxiang Xie³, Fanfan Zheng⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Nursing, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
² Peking University Clinical Research Institute, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, China.
³ Peking University Clinical Research Institute, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, China; Key Laboratory of Epidemiology of Major Diseases (Peking University), Ministry of Education, Beijing, China. Electronic address: xiewuxiang@hsc.pku.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Nursing, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. Electronic address: zhengfanfan@nursing.pumc.edu.cn.

PMID: 38453136
DOI: 10.1016/j.jamda.2024.01.029

Abstract

Objectives: The relationship between age at diagnosis of hyperlipidemia and dementia remains unclear. We examined whether younger age at diagnosis of hyperlipidemia is associated with higher risk of subsequent dementia.

Design: A longitudinal population-based study with a median follow-up of 12.8 years.

Setting and participants: We analyzed data on a sample of 489,642 participants in the United Kingdom.

Methods: This study was based on the UK Biobank. Information on hyperlipidemia and dementia diagnoses was collected at baseline (2006-2010) and follow-up [median = 12.8 years, interquartile range (IQR): 12.1-13.6 years]. Propensity score matching method and Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the association between age at diagnosis of hyperlipidemia and dementia.

Results: Among 489,642 participants (mean age: 56.9 ± 8.1 years; female: 54.7%), 114,112 (23.3%) were diagnosed with hyperlipidemia. Younger age at diagnosis of hyperlipidemia (per 10-year decrease) was significantly associated with higher risks of all-cause dementia [hazard ratio (HR), 1.12; 95% CI, 1.07-1.18; P < .001], Alzheimer's disease (AD) (HR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.14-1.31; P < .001), and vascular dementia (VD) (HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.05-1.27; P < .001). After propensity score matching, patients with hyperlipidemia diagnosed before 50 years had the highest HR for all-cause dementia (HR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.15-1.86; P = .002), followed by patients diagnosed between 50 and 69 years (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.12-1.31; P < .001) and then patients diagnosed aged 70 years and older (HR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.84-1.06; P = .302). Similar results were observed for AD and VD.

Conclusions and implications: A dose-response relationship between age at hyperlipidemia diagnosis and risk of dementia was found in the longitudinal cohort study, with younger age at diagnosis of hyperlipidemia being associated with higher subsequent risk.

Keywords: UK Biobank; age at diagnosis; dementia; hyperlipidemia; propensity score matching.