Exploring the link between comorbidities and Alzheimer's dementia in the Australian Imaging, Biomarker & Lifestyle (AIBL) study.

Abstract

Mounting evidence suggests that certain comorbidities may influence the clinical evolution of Alzheimer's dementia (AD). We conducted logistic regression analyses on the medical history and cognitive health diagnoses of participants in the Australian Imaging, Biomarker & Lifestyle study (n=2443) to investigate cross-sectional associations between various comorbidities and mild cognitive impairment (MCI)/AD. A mixture of associations were observed. Higher comorbidity of anxiety and other neurological disorders was associated with higher odds of AD, while arthritis, cancer, gastric complaints, high cholesterol, joint replacement, visual defect, kidney and liver disease were associated with lower odds of AD. This study underscores the links between specific comorbidities and MCI/AD. Further research is needed to elucidate the longitudinal comorbidity-MCI/AD associations and underlying mechanisms of these associations. Comorbidities that significantly increased AD odds included anxiety and other neurological disorders.Arthritis, cancer, gastric complaints, high cholesterol, joint replacement, visual defect, kidney and liver disease were associated with lower odds of AD.Alcohol consumption had the most significant confounding effect in the study.Visual-AD association was modified by age, sex, and APOE ε4 allele status.Anxiety-AD and depression-AD associations were modified by sex.