Key clinical point: Cardiovascular (CV) disease (CVD) and CV risk factors were risk factors for incident dementia among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients between 65 and 74 years of age; however, this risk attenuated with increasing age.
Major finding: Patients with CVD and CV risk factors between 65 and 74 years of age had an increased risk for dementia vs. those without CVD and CV risk factors (adjusted hazard Ratio [aHR], 1.18; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.33; aHR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.00-1.11, respectively). For patients between 75 and 84 years of age, a trend toward an increased risk of dementia was observed with CVD but was not statistically significant (aHR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.92-1.14). These associations were not observed among patients aged 85 years and older.
Study details: Longitudinal analysis of 56,567 patients with RA using Center for Medicare & Medicaid claims (CMS) data from 2006 to 2014; 11,789 (20.1%) incident cases of dementia were included in the analysis.
Disclosures: The study was supported by I Navarro-Millan’s IPCI award from Weill Cornell Medicine Division of General Internal Medicine. JR Curtis received research support and consulting fees from AbbVie, Amgen, BMS, Corrona, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Myriad, Pfizer, Regeneron, Roche, and UCB. SB Lieber reported spousal ownership interests in Cigna, Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Merck, and Pfizer. I Navarro-Millán received consulting fees from Sobi. The remaining authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Sattui SE et al. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2021 Jan 5. doi: 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2020.09.022 .