The Association Between the Use of Cholinesterase Inhibitors and Cardiovascular Events Among Older Patients With Alzheimer Disease

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the association between the use of cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) and incident cardiovascular events (CVEs) among older patients with Alzheimer disease (AD).

Patients and Methods

This retrospective cohort study was conducted with a new-user design and active-comparator design. The data source was the 2005–2014 Full Population file from the Health and Welfare Database in Taiwan. Patients were included if they were aged 50 years or older and had been diagnosed with AD between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2010. The association between ChEI use and the risk of CVEs was investigated in patients with AD. Among the ChEI users, the risk of CVEs was further compared between patients with different cumulative doses and different ChEI treatment strategies. The propensity score method, which included matching and inverse probability of treatment weighting, was used to balance the potential confounders. A Cox proportional hazards model with competing risks was used to estimate the hazard ratio of CVEs.

Results

The study included 6070 patients with AD. After covariate adjustment, ChEI users had a significantly lower risk of CVEs than nonusers (hazard ratio, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.51 to 0.62). Among ChEI users, patients with a high cumulative dose had a significantly lower risk of CVEs than those with a low cumulative dose (hazard ratio, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.70 to 0.96).

Conclusion

The use of ChEIs was associated with a decreased risk of incident CVEs among patients with AD. The cardioprotective effect of ChEIs showed a dose-response relationship.