Irritable Bowel Syndrome Is Associated with an Increased Risk of Dementia: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 1; p. e0144589
• Main Authors: Chen, Chien-Hua, Lin, Cheng-Li, Kao, Chia-Hung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Abdomen; Adult; Age; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease - epidemiology; Alzheimer's disease; Brain; Brain injury; Brain research; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiovascular Diseases - epidemiology; Cognitive ability; Cohort Studies; Comorbidity; Confidence intervals; Coronary artery; Coronary artery disease; Craniocerebral Trauma - epidemiology; Cytokines; Dementia; Dementia - epidemiology; Dementia disorders; Depression - epidemiology; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetes Mellitus - epidemiology; Epilepsy; Epilepsy - epidemiology; Female; Gastroenterology; Head injuries; Health insurance; Heart diseases; Hospitals; Humans; Hypertension; Intestine; Irritable bowel syndrome; Irritable Bowel Syndrome - epidemiology; Irritable Bowel Syndrome - psychology; Male; Medical research; Medicine; Mental depression; Microbiota; Middle Aged; Motility; Nervous system; Neurodegenerative diseases; Pain; Patients; Population; Population studies; Population-based studies; Proportional Hazards Models; Random sampling; Risk; Risk assessment; Risk Factors; Sampling methods; Sampling Studies; Sex; Taiwan - epidemiology; Young Adult; Taiwan
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144589
• ISSN: 1932-6203

Abnormal interaction in the brain-gut axis has emerged as one of the relevant pathophysiological mechanisms for the development of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Moreover, the brain-gut axis has recently been demonstrated to be crucial for the maintenance of cognitive performance. Therefore, we assessed the risk of dementia following diagnosis of IBS. Using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) to obtain medical claims data from 2000 to 2011, we employed a random sampling method to enroll32 298 adult patients with IBS and frequency-matched them according to sex, age, and baseline year with 129 192 patients without IBS. The patients with IBS exhibited an increased risk of dementia [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) = 1.26, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.17-1.35]after adjustment for age, sex, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, coronary artery disease (CAD), head injury, depression, and epilepsy, and the overall incidence of dementia for the cohorts with and without IBS was 4.86 and 3.41 per 1000 person-years, respectively. IBS was associated with an increased risk of dementia in patients older than 50 years in both male and female, and in those with comorbidity or without comorbidity. After adjustment for age, sex, and comorbidity, patients with IBS were also more likely to develop either non- Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia (aHR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.15-1.33) or AD (aHR = 1.76, 95% CI = 1.28-2.43). IBS is associated with an increased risk of dementia, and this effect is obvious only in patients who are ≥50 years old.