COVID-19 infection associated with increased risk of new-onset vascular dementia in adults ≥50 years, 2025, Shan et al.

[Chandelier]

COVID-19 infection associated with increased risk of new-onset vascular dementia in adults ≥50 years - npj Dementia

COVID-19 is associated with long-term neurological complications, but its impact on new-onset dementia (NOD), particularly vascular dementia (VaD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), remains unclear. We observed adults aged 50 years and older from the UK Biobank over a median observational period...

www.nature.com

Abstract​

COVID-19 is associated with long-term neurological complications, but its impact on new-onset dementia (NOD), particularly vascular dementia (VaD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), remains unclear.

We observed adults aged 50 years and older from the UK Biobank over a median observational period exceeding two years following COVID-19 infection.
Incidences of various types of dementia (including all-cause dementia, AD, and VaD) in these individuals were compared with those in propensity-score-matched controls without COVID-19 and in individuals with non-COVID respiratory illnesses (including both non-communicable respiratory conditions and non-COVID respiratory tract infections).

We found that COVID-19 survivors had a higher likelihood of developing NOD compared to uninfected controls. This increased risk was primarily driven by VaD rather than AD; however, the risk did not surpass that observed among individuals with non-COVID respiratory illnesses.
Notably, individuals with pre-existing mental health conditions were particularly vulnerable, exhibiting significantly higher risks of VaD following COVID-19 infection.

 

[Kalliope]

Cidrap: COVID-19 infection associated with increased risk new-onset vascular dementia in older adults

quote:

“The observed associations may reflect a broader impact of respiratory conditions on cognitive health rather than a COVID-19–specific effect,” the authors wrote. “Given the substantial societal burden of dementia, continued surveillance and research into the long-term cognitive consequences of COVID-19 are crucial.”

COVID-19 infection associated with increased risk of new-onset vascular dementia in older adults

Prior COVID-19 infection was associated with a 41% increased risk of all-cause dementia.

www.cidrap.umn.edu

 

[rvallee]

“The observed associations may reflect a broader impact of respiratory conditions on cognitive health rather than a COVID-19–specific effect,” the authors wrote. “Given the substantial societal burden of dementia, continued surveillance and research into the long-term cognitive consequences of COVID-19 are crucial.”

For years we heard this mindless bleating about how COVID is no worse on average than other common infections, entirely ignoring the fact that it being far more contagious than most others still makes the total harm greater, and instead of going for the obvious conclusion that, actually, infections are just not good for us and may be the cause of many health problems, the medical profession took the exact opposite direction: actually, infections don't matter, everyone get infected all the time!

Instead they took the double wrong path of making illness a lifestyle failure, while promoting an obviously invalid lifestyle ideology as the solution. "Just eat well and exercise and you will be fine", they said, "no need to worry about infections, it's your lifestyle choices that are what's wrong with you", thus completing the decades-long neoliberal regression of privatizing gains and socializing losses: most lose so that a few may gain.

It was obviously wrong, and still hardly anyone is able to say it out loud, because the policy was universally adopted out of fraudulent excuses. Because politics drive things more than science, data or evidence. No wonder people are "abandoning science" when even experts do, even when they make things harder for them. Instead they do ideological politics and call it "following the science". No wonder people don't trust experts, damnit!