ETHNICITY, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE AND RISK OF DEMENTIA

Abstract

South Asian and Black minority ethnic groups are known to have a higher incidence and prevalence of cardiovascular disease than White ethnic groups and this may in turn increase their risk of developing dementia, as well. This study seeks to explore this hypothesis using large scale population-based databases including the UK primary care- based Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) mortality data. All eligible participants over the age of 50y from the CPRD database were included in this analysis and were stratified into 5 different ethnic groups, White, Black, South Asian, East Asian and Mixed and the outcome of interest was a dementia diagnosis. Dementia cases were sequentially added to the Electronic Health Record diagnoses, firstly using HES data, ONS mortality data and then supplementing these with algorithm-derived cases. Their trajectories were followed over the observation period 1995–2015, until death or dementia outcome. Information on cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and risk factor data of interest was also captured during this observation period. Cox regression was used to examine the association between ethnicity, CVD and risk factors and risk of dementia. Descriptive analyses showed that the overall prevalence and incidence rates for dementia over the last 2 decades have increased. Dementia prevalence rates in 1995 (2.09%), 2005 (2.28%) and 2015 (2.40%). Incidence rates in 1995 (0.02%), 2005 (0.14%) and 2015 (0.27%). From the dementia cohort of 326,355 cases; 188,805 (White), 2,094 (Black), 3662 (South Asian), 1,065 (East Asian) and 1491 (Mixed). The significance of ethnicity and risk factors in the development of dementia will be analysed and presented. Understanding the differences for ethnic variation in dementia rates is not only vital for aetiological research but also in the development of prevention strategies. This will be the first retrospective longitudinal study to be conducted on a large UK clinical database, to explore the effects of ethnicity on dementia risk.