A new research had presented its conclusion that atrial fibrillation (AF) can increase the risk of dementia -- more profound in younger patients than the older population. The European Society of Cardiology found that AF increases the likelihood of dementia by 21% in patients over the age of 70 and by 36% for those diagnosed with early-onset dementia before the age of 65. Research showed that with the increase in age, the association weakens.
Led by Dr Julián Rodriguez García of the Electrophysiology and Arrhythmia department of the Bellvitge University Hospital in Barcelona, the researchers wanted to assess the independent association between AF and dementia, a concept that was theorised but yet to be proven.
The large-scale study assessed data from 2,520,839 individuals in Spain’s Catalonia. Participants, aged 45 and older without prior dementia, were evaluated from 2007 to 2021, out of which 79,820 patients (3.25%) had a recorded diagnosis of AF. Overall, the research recorded that AF resulted in only a 4% increased risk of dementia, but it was more prominently linked to younger patients. In patients aged 45-50, the risk of dementia was 3.3 times higher, while the association was unseen in patients over the age of 70.
The authors of the study explained, “Dementia is often a multifactorial condition with mixed neuropathological findings rather than a single pathophysiological process. This may explain why AF has a greater impact on younger patients, where it could be one of the primary pathogenic factors. Conversely, in older individuals, additional contributors to cognitive decline—such as age-related neurodegeneration—may lessen the relative impact of AF.”