TABLE 1.
Baseline characteristics
| Herpes diagnosis, no antiviral treatment and controls without antiviral treatment and herpes diagnosis | Herpes diagnosis, with antiviral treatment and controls without antiviral treatment and herpes diagnosis | Antiviral treatment irrespective of diagnosis and controls without antiviral treatment and herpes diagnosis | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herpes infection, no antiviral treatment, n = 9933 | Controls, n = 9933 | Herpes infection, with antiviral treatment, n = 29,593 | Controls, n = 29,593 | Antiviral treatment | Controls, n = 255,239 | |
| Age, mean ± SD, y | 75 (± 11) | 75 (± 11) | 72 (± 10) | 72 (± 10) | 70 (± 10) | 70 (± 10) |
| Sex, female, (%) | 57.9 | 57.9 | 58.7 | 58.7 | 61.4 | 61.4 |
| Educational level, (%) | ||||||
| Missing a | 1.9 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.6 |
| Primary school | 42.9 | 41.2 | 36.3 | 38.1 | 32.3 | 35.4 |
| Secondary school | 36.9 | 36.6 | 24.7 | 38.1 | 38.7 | 39.4 |
| University | 18.9 | 19.9 | 24.7 | 22.0 | 28.0 | 23.6 |
| Antiviral treatment, (%) | ||||||
| Acyclovir (J05AB01) | 33.4 | 42.6 | ||||
| Gancyclovir (J05AB06) | <0.01 | <0.01 | ||||
| Famcyclovir (J05AB09) | 0.2 | 0.1 | ||||
| Valacyclovir (J05AB11) | 66.1 | 52.8 | ||||
| Cidofovir (J05AB12) | 0.0 | <0.01 | ||||
| Valgancyclovir (J05AB14) | 0.3 | 0.7 | ||||
| Antiviral prescriptions, n (%) | ||||||
| One | 27,449 (92.8) | 240,676 (94.3) | ||||
| Two | 1888 (6.4) | 12,584 (4.9) | ||||
| Three | 170 (0.6) | 1307 (0.5) | ||||
| Four or more | 86 (0.3) | 672 (0.3) | ||||
| Herpes diagnoses, (%) b , c | ||||||
| HSV diagnoses | 43.5 | 22.0 | ||||
| VZV diagnoses | 57.6 | 81.3 | ||||
| Incidence rate for dementia per 1000 person‐years | 12.9 | 10.2 | 8.5 | 9.4 | 6.6 | 7.4 |
| Incident dementia cases, (%) | 5.7 | 5.4 | 4.4 | 5.1 | 3.5 | 4.1 |
| Follow‐up time, mean, y | 4.4 (±3.5) | 5.3 (± 3.4) | 5.2 (±3.4) | 5.4 (±3.4) | 5.4 (±3.5) | 5.5 (±3.5) |
| Follow‐up time, median, y and range | 3.8 (0–12) | 4.9 (0–12) | 4.8 (0–12) | 5.1 (0–12) | 5.0 (0–12) | 5.2 (0–12) |
| Medical conditions, (%) b | ||||||
| Alcohol intoxication | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 1.0 |
| Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease | 2.4 | 1.1 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.0 |
| Congestive heart failure | 3.7 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.3 |
| Myocardial infarction | 4.4 | 3.3 | 3.8 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 2.4 |
| Parkinson's disease | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Stroke | 4.2 | 3.3 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 2.2 | 2.2 |
| Drug prescription | ||||||
| Antidepressants | 10.6 | 9.0 | 9.9 | 8.6 | 10.2 | 8.9 |
| Antidiabetics | 9.7 | 6.3 | 7.6 | 7.1 | 6.3 | 6.5 |
| Antihypertensive | 38.9 | 33.8 | 33.9 | 30.3 | 29.5 | 27.9 |
| Antipsychotics | 1.9 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.5 | 1.8 |
Abbreviations: HSV, herpes simplex virus; N, number; SD, standard deviation; VZV, varicella zoster virus; y, years.
a
Missing values were not imputed and were thus excluded from the Cox regression models.
b
Medical conditions at baseline are coded dichotomously and include diagnoses from specialist clinics.
c
Some of which had diagnoses of both VZV and HSV.