Cardiovascular health, infection burden, and incident dementia in the UK Biobank

Abstract INTRODUCTION Among older adults, total and hospitalized infection may be associated with incidence of all‐cause and Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementias, with variation by cardiovascular health (CVH). METHODS We used Cox proportional hazards (PH) models to examine the relationships between International Classification of Diseases‐10th revision (ICD‐10)‐specific viral and bacterial infectious agents and incident all‐cause and AD dementia among 355,046 UK Biobank participants ≥50 years at baseline. Life's Essential 8 (LE8) index reflected CVH. RESULTS In both sexes, total infection burden (yes vs. no) was associated with all‐cause dementia, with significant interactions by LE8 tertiles, whereby this relationship was significant only in the lowest LE8 tertile. Hospital‐treated infection burden (yes vs no) was significantly related to all‐cause and AD dementia, with no significant interaction with LE8 tertile. Age group patterns were detected. DISCUSSION AD and all‐cause dementia were related to hospital‐treated infections, while CVH modified the relationship of total infection burden with all‐cause dementia. Highlights Secondary analysis on >355,000 UK Biobank participants ≥50 years at baseline. Alzheimer's disease and all‐cause dementia are both related to hospital‐treated infection. Cardiovascular health modifies association of infection burden with all‐cause dementia.