Impact of Osteoporosis on the Risk of Dementia in Almost 60,000 Subjects

A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease sought to explore the impact of osteoporosis on the risk of developing dementia in almost 60,000 persons followed for up to 20 years in more than 1,200 general practices in Germany, reports ScienceDaily . The team used data from the Disease Analyzer database, which included 29,983 patients with osteoporosis and 29,983 controls who lacked it. After 20 years of follow-up, 20.5 percent of women with osteoporosis and 16.4 percent of controls had been diagnosed with dementia. At the end of follow-up, dementia was found in 22 percent of men previously diagnosed with osteoporosis and 14.9 percent of men who were not. Osteoporosis was linked to a 1.2-fold increase in the risk of being diagnosed with dementia in women and a 1.3-fold increase in the risk of diagnosis in men. "The major hypothesis to explain the association between osteoporosis and dementia is that these two conditions have similar risk factors," says Paris 5's Louis Jacob. "These factors include APOE4 allele of the apolipoprotein E, a major cholesterol carrier, lower vitamin K levels, vitamin D deficiency, but also androgens and estrogens."