Coronary Heart Disease, Especially With Early Onset, Linked to Dementia

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 29, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Coronary heart disease (CHD) is associated with increased risks for developing all-cause dementia, Alzheimer disease, and vascular dementia, with higher risks for younger age at CHD onset, according to a study published online Nov. 29 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Jie Liang, from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, and colleagues examined the association of age at onset of CHD with incident dementia using data from the U.K. Biobank. Data were included for 432,667 adults, of whom 11.7 percent had CHD.

The researchers found that participants with CHD had higher risks for developing all-cause dementia, Alzheimer disease, and vascular dementia compared with participants without CHD. Younger age at onset of CHD was associated with increased risks for all-cause dementia, Alzheimer disease, and vascular dementia (hazard ratios, 1.25, 1.29, and 1.22, respectively, per 10-year decrease). After propensity score matching, the risks for all-cause dementia, Alzheimer disease, and vascular dementia were significantly higher for patients with CHD than matched controls among all onset age groups, with the hazard ratios increasing gradually with decreasing age at onset.

“The present findings have important public health implications as they contribute to ascertaining vulnerable populations with dementia by revealing that adults diagnosed with CHD at younger ages, especially before midlife (aged <45 years), might be the most vulnerable to future dementia," the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text