Author(s)
Zachary David Urdang, MD PhD
Karen Michelle Wai, MD
Ehsan Rahimy, MD
Prithvi Mruthyunjaya, MD MHS
Marlan Rex Hansen, MD
Richard Klaus Gurgel, MD MSCI
Affiliation(s)
University of Iowa;
Abstract:
Educational Objective: To report on the compounded associative risk of multisensory loss and dementia.
Objectives: Test the hypothesis that sensory loss for any of the five primary senses associates with dementia and whether this risk is compounded with multisensory loss.
Study Design: Retrospective cohort database study with propensity score matching (PSM).
Methods: TriNetX is an electronic health record research network representing data from 125 million patients from the United States, Taiwan, Japan, Brazil, and India. Subjects 55 years old and older with hearing, vision, touch, smell, or taste loss were identified using representative ICD10 codes for the respective conditions. Control patients had no sensory loss. Unmatched odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (OR, 95%CI) were calculated for Alzheimer's, vascular, or other dementia within 30 years of index. Subsequent propensity score matching analysis matching for dementia rick factors compared multisensory loss to the dysgeusia cohort.
Resultss: ensory loss cohorts included 1,743,010 with hearing loss, 328,511 with vision loss, 1,651,658 with hypoesthesia, 13,846 patients with anosmia, and 33,165 with dysgeusia and 44,811,916 controls. Unmatched risk for dementia was 1.67% (OR:1.01, 0.93-1.10) for dysgeusia, 2.25% (OR:1.37, 1.22-1.53) for anosmia, 2.35% (OR:1.43, 1.41-1.44) for hypoesthesia, 4.67% (OR:2.80, 2.75-2.85) for vision loss, and 5.09% (OR:3.18, 3.16-3.21) for hearing loss versus 1.66% for controls. After propensity score matching, risk for dementia for vision plus hearing loss was 5.34% (OR:3.01, 2.72-3.33) versus 1.84% for controls. The risk for dementia with 5 sensory loss was 12.34% (OR: 3.87, 2.82-6.55) versus 3.53% for controls.
Conclusionss: ensory loss of any of the five primary senses associates with increased risk for dementia. Involvement of multiple senses compounds this risk suggesting that sensory deprivation has a cumulative deleterious effect on brain function.