Heart attacks are linked to a higher early risk of dementia
The one-year dementia risk was 0.86% after a first heart attack compared with 0.76% in people without one.
Limit: Competing risk of mortality in heart attack patients reversed the association over time
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In an observational cohort study, researchers analyzed 174,772 patients with a first-time heart attack and 349,500 matched controls without dementia from Danish nationwide registries. The participants had a median age of 69 years, and 65% were male. Each patient was matched with two controls by sex, birth year and index date between 1999 and 2023.
During the first years after a heart attack, the risk of all-cause dementia was slightly higher in patients than in controls. Over the long term, the risk of dementia appeared lower in patients, likely due to a higher competing risk of death. Mortality was consistently higher among patients with a heart attack, with a 1-year and 20-year risk of 16.36% and 65.10% versus 3.42% and 52.59% in controls.
Why it matters
Heart disease and dementia are common conditions in older adults that may share underlying cardiometabolic mechanisms. Understanding how heart attacks relate to long-term cognitive health could help evaluate whether managing cardiovascular risk factors can lower the risk of dementia.
Caveats
The observational study relies on registry records and shows associations rather than cause. The findings also do not apply to people who had dementia before their first heart attack.
The paper
Dementia and mortality after myocardial infarction: a Danish nationwide study
