Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia as a component of a multiorgan senescence syndrome

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Patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) have a higher risk for comorbidities than non-cognitively impaired age-matched individuals. Because ADRD is an age-related disorder, it was hypothesized that younger patients with ADRD have a lower prevalence of comorbidities than their older counterparts. To test this hypothesis, the following four patient cohorts were defined in the TriNetX Analytics Network database based on the presence or absence of International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes G30 (Alzheimer’s disease), and/or F01 (dementia in other diseases classified elsewhere) in their health care records who had health care visits from 2021 to 2023: individuals aged 65 – 80 years with and without ADRD diagnosis and individuals aged ≥90 years with and without ADRD diagnosis. Patients with ADRD in both age groups had a higher prevalence of comorbidities in almost all ICD-10 chapters than age-matched non-ADRD individuals. The younger ADRD cohort showed a comorbidity pattern that was significantly different than that of their age-matched cohort (P < 0.0001); however, it was not statistically different than the comorbidity pattern of the older ADRD cohort (P = 0.80). Similarly, the younger non-ADRD cohort showed a comorbidity pattern that was not statistically different than that of the older non-ADRD cohort (P = 0.28). These results indicated that ADRD diagnosis is associated with coincident multiorgan dysfunction in a pattern that is almost identical between the two different age groups. These data also suggested that cognitive impairment associated with ADRD is only a single component of a multiorgan senescence syndrome. Overall, this study revealed that optimizing the health care management of non-cognitive organ dysfunction in patients with ADRD may improve their overall health and, thereby, delay the progression of cognitive impairment.