Do Adults with Asthma Have a Higher Risk of Dementia?

Older adults with asthma are at a significantly greater risk of developing dementia than the general population, according to a new study.

In order to explore the relationship between adult asthma and dementia, researchers from China Medical University Hospital in Taichung, Taiwan identified 12,771 patients diagnosed with asthma between 2001 and 2003, and 51,084 participants in a healthy control group (a 4:1 ratio).
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Researchers observed a 1.27-fold greater hazard ratio for dementia in the asthma group versus the control group, and an 11.1-fold higher risk in elderly patients compared with those between 20 and 64 years old.

Patients with asthma and previous stroke had the highest risk of dementia, followed by those with atrial fibrillation, those who had over 30 annual outpatient visits per year, head injury, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia.

Risk of dementia also increased incrementally with the number of asthma-related visits to emergency departments and admissions to the hospital.

Further, those patients taking inhaled corticosteroids to control asthma symptoms had a significantly lower risk of dementia than those not taking them.

Researchers suspect that the association may have something to do with the inflammatory factors involved with both conditions.

The full study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Peng Y, Wu B, Su C, Liao W, et al. Adult asthma increases dementia risk: a nationwide cohort study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2014 October [epub ahead of print] doi:10.1136/jech-2014-204445