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Drug prescriptions and dementia incidence: a medication-wide association study of 17000 dementia cases among half a million participants

Tim Wilkinson Orcid Logo, Christian Schnier, Kathryn Bush, Kristiina Rannikmäe, Ronan Lyons Orcid Logo, Stuart McTaggart, Marion Bennie, Cathie LM Sudlow

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Volume: 76, Issue: 3, Pages: 223 - 229

Swansea University Author: Ronan Lyons Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1136/jech-2021-217090

Abstract

Previous studies have suggested that some medications may influence dementia risk. We conducted a hypothesis-generating medication-wide association study to investigate systematically the association between all prescription medications and incident dementia. We used a population-based cohort within...

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Published in: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
ISSN: 0143-005X 1470-2738
Published: BMJ 2022
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa58618
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Abstract: Previous studies have suggested that some medications may influence dementia risk. We conducted a hypothesis-generating medication-wide association study to investigate systematically the association between all prescription medications and incident dementia. We used a population-based cohort within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank, comprising routinely-collected primary care, hospital admissions and mortality data from Wales, UK. We included all participants born after 1910 and registered with a SAIL general practice at ≤60 years old. Follow-up was from each participant's 60th birthday to the earliest of dementia diagnosis, deregistration from a SAIL general practice, death or the end of 2018. We considered participants exposed to a medication if they received ≥1 prescription for any of 744 medications before or during follow-up. We adjusted for sex, smoking and socioeconomic status. The outcome was any all-cause dementia code in primary care, hospital or mortality data during follow-up. We used Cox regression to calculate hazard ratios and Bonferroni-corrected p values. Of 551 344 participants, 16 998 (3%) developed dementia (median follow-up was 17 years for people who developed dementia, 10 years for those without dementia). Of 744 medications, 221 (30%) were associated with dementia. Of these, 217 (98%) were associated with increased dementia incidence, many clustering around certain indications. Four medications (all vaccines) were associated with a lower dementia incidence. Almost a third of medications were associated with dementia. The clustering of many drugs around certain indications may provide insights into early manifestations of dementia. We encourage further investigation of hypotheses generated by these results. [Abstract copyright: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.]
Keywords: neuroepidemiology, dementia, record linkage, pharmacoepidemiology
College: Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
Funders: The creation of the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank Dementia electronic Cohort was funded by Dementias Platform UK (MR/L015382/1). TW was funded by a Medical Research Council Clinical Research Training Fellowship (MR/P001823/1).
Issue: 3
Start Page: 223
End Page: 229

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