Table 4.
Associations between Carotid Plaques in Midlife and Clinical Dementia Diagnoses during 20 Years of Follow‐up, in a Population‐Based Setting (N = 6,103)
| Alzheimer Dementia, n = 138, HR (95% CI) | Mixed Dementia, n = 147, HR (95% CI) | Vascular Dementia, n = 109, HR (95% CI) | Any Dementia, n = 462, HR (95% CI) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any carotid plaque | ||||
| Model 1 | 0.98 (0.68–1.42) | 1.20 (0.82–1.75) | 1.82 (1.13–2.94)a | 1.23 (1.00–1.52) |
| Model 2 | 0.98 (0.67–1.43) | 1.25 (0.84–1.87) | 1.60 (0.97–2.66) | 1.20 (0.96–1.50) |
| Model 3 | 1.03 (0.70–1.51) | 1.18 (0.78–1.78) | 1.46 (0.87–2.43) | 1.15 (0.92–1.44) |
| Carotid plaque score | ||||
| Model 1 | ||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 1.04 (0.70–1.54) | 1.11 (0.74–1.67) | 1.42 (0.84–2.40) | 1.12 (0.89–1.41) |
| 2 | 0.87 (0.53–1.40) | 1.36 (0.87–2.13) | 2.57 (1.51–4.35)a | 1.44 (1.12–1.84)a |
| Model 2 | ||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 1.09 (0.73–1.63) | 1.14 (0.74–1.76) | 1.31 (0.76–2.28) | 1.11 (0.87–1.42) |
| 2 | 0.75 (0.45–1.26) | 1.46 (0.91–2.34) | 2.12 (1.21–3.71)a | 1.36 (1.04–1.77)a |
| Model 3 | ||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 1.12 (0.74–1.67) | 1.11 (0.71–1.72) | 1.23 (0.70–2.14) | 1.08 (0.85–1.38) |
| 2 | 0.82 (0.48–1.40) | 1.32 (0.81–2.16) | 1.90 (1.07–3.38)a | 1.29 (0.98–1.70) |
Adjusted cause‐specific hazard models for dementia. Results are presented by presence of any versus no carotid plaque (dichotomous variable) and by carotid plaque score (categorical variable). Mixed dementia denotes Alzheimer disease with cerebrovascular pathology. Number of events (cases) and total number of individuals per model are presented in Supplementary Table 2.
Model 1: Age. Model 2: Age, sex, APOE ε4, and education. Model 3: Age, sex, APOE ε4, education, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, smoking, diabetes mellitus, blood pressure–lowering medication, lipid‐lowering medication, and stroke.
Significant, as can be noted by the CI.
CI = confidence interval; HR = hazard ratio.