A woman receives her Covid jab (stock photo)
(Picture: PA)People aged 65 and older are up to 50 per cent more likely to develop Alzheimer’s shortly after being infected with Covid, according to a new study.
The risk of developing the form of dementia within a year was nearly double for those in the age group who had contracted the virus.
The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, showed that the risk for developing Alzheimer’s nearly doubled from 0.35 per cent to 0.68 per cent in a year following infection with Covid.
Researchers from the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio analysed the electronic health records of 6.2 million adults aged over 65 in the US who received medical treatment between February 2020 and May 2021. None had a prior diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Participants were divided into two groups – those who had contracted the virus during the period and those who had not. Around 400,000 people were enrolled in the Covid group and 5.8 million in the non-infected group.
Dr Pamela Davis, a research professor at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, and co-author of the study, said: “The factor that play into the development of Alzheimer’s disease have been poorly understood, but two pieces considered important are prior infections, especially viral infections, and inflammation.
“Since infection with SARS-Cov-2 has been associated with central nervous system abnormalities including inflammation, we wanted to test whether, even in the short term, Covid could lead to increased diagnoses.”
Dr Davis added: “If this increase in new diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease is sustained, the wave of patients with a disease currently without a cure will be substantial, and could further strain our long-term care resources.
“Alzheimer’s disease is a serious and challenging disease, and we thought we had turned some of the tide on it by reducing general risk factors such as hypertension, heart disease, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.”
Previous studies undertaken by the University have found that people with dementia are twice as likely to contract Covid.
Heather Snyder, vice president of medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer’s Association, told Medical News Today that there could be other explanations for the results of the study.
She said the pandemic had presented “serious delays” for those seeking diagnoses for Alzheimer’s, meaning the results “could be driven by those who already had Alzheimer’s disease when they were infected but had not yet sought out a formal diagnosis”.
Dr Snyder said “new, longitudinal research” examining the link between the two illnesses would be required.
