Table 3.
Bibliographic citations related with new risk factors: subjective memory complaints, knowledge, pharmaceutical drugs, viral or other infections and use of the internet or digital technologies.
| Factor | Study Type | Country (N) | Relationship to Dementia | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjective memory complaint (SMC) |
CI screening | Spain; N = 728 |
Sign of testing positive in CI screening. | Climent et al., 2018 |
| Image analysis | USA and The Netherlands; N = 25 |
Associated with greater white matter hyperintensity volume. | Van Rooden S, 2018 | |
| Nation cohort | Mexico; N = 6327 |
Associated with an increase in the 3-year incidence of CI. | Borda et al., 2019 | |
| CI screening and diagnosis | Australia; N = 873 |
Associated with a decline in global cognition over 6 years and may be predictive of the incidence of dementia. | Numbers et al., 2020 | |
| CI screening and diagnosis | Spain; N = 281 |
Associated with a two-fold increase in detection of cognitive impairment, i.e., use of SMC as an inclusion criterium. | Ramos et al., 2021 | |
| Knowledge | Multicentre randomised controlled trial | Finland and Sweden; N = 1260 |
Multidomain lifestyle interventions have beneficial effects on cognition. | Rosenberg et al., 2018 |
| Review | Czech Republic | Multidomain lifestyle interventions generate significant effects in delaying cognitive decline. | Toman et al., 2018 | |
| Interventional study | China; N = 1082 |
Patient adherence may be improved by increasing patients’ self-management efficacy. | Chen et al., 2020 | |
| Randomised control trial | China; N = 148 |
Pragmatic multidomain interventions might supplement healthy aging policies if patients are empowered. | Xie et al., 2020 | |
| Pharmaceutical drugs | Retrospective | South Korea; N = 1,576,452 |
Association between benzodiazepine consumption and dementia after 5 years. | Baek et al., 2019 |
| Prospective | Spain; N = 5072 |
Association between a decreased risk of AD mortality and NSAID use. NSAIDs as a protective factor for developing AD. |
Benito-León et al., 2019 | |
| Retrospective | UK; N = 8216 |
ACB3 use is associated with dementia, especially in cognitively normal people. ACB12 and benzodiazepines are not associated with dementia. |
Grossi et al., 2019 | |
| Retrospective | UK, Spain, Denmark, and The Netherlands; N = 1127 |
Association between methotrexate use and lower dementia risk, especially when the therapy exceeds 4 years. | Newby et al., 2020 | |
| Prospective | USA; N = 688 |
Anticholinergic drugs increase the risk of developing cognitive decline and dementia, especially among patients with genetic risk factors. | Weigand et al., 2020 | |
| Viral and bacterial infections | Molecular multiscale analysis | USA; N = 643 brain samples |
Increased HHV-6A and HHV-7 in the brains of patients with AD. | Readhead et al., 2018 |
| Retrospective | Taiwan; N = 33,448 participants |
Patients with HSV infections may have a 2.56-fold increased risk of developing dementia. Treatment with antiherpetic medications was associated with a decreased risk of dementia. |
Tzeng et al., 2018 | |
| Systematic review | England; N = 57 studies |
Recent reactivation of herpesvirus HSV-1, HSV-2, cytomegalovirus, and HHV-6 may be associated with dementia or MCIs. | Warren–Gash et al., 2019 | |
| Review | Australia; N = 15 studies |
Chlamydia pneumoniae found at increased rates in the brains of AD patients. Limitations of previous human and animal studies preclude conclusive interpretation. |
Woods et al., 2019 | |
| Systematic review | Brazil; N = 9 studies |
Infection by Porphyromonas gingivalis and bacterial lipopolysaccharide administration appears to be related to the pathogenesis of AD. | Costa et al., 2021 | |
| Use of the internet or digital technologies | Longitudinal study | Brazil; N = 2902 | Older adults who continue using the internet were more likely to have significantly lower cognitive loss. | Krug et al., 2019 |
| Case–control study | Spain; N = 497 participants |
Internet use was a factor associated with a 67–86% reduced risk of CI compatible scores in neuropsychological tests. | Ramos et al., 2020 | |
| Systematic review | The Netherlands N = 9 studies | Weak evidence that digital technologies may provide less benefit to people with dementia than those with an MCI. | Neal et al., 2021 |
CI: cognitive impairment; ACB: anticholinergic burden scale; AD: Alzheimer disease; HVS: Herpes simplex virus; HSV-1: Herpes simplex virus type 1; HSV-2: Herpes simplex virus type 2; HHV-6: Human herpesvirus 6; HHV-7: Human herpesvirus 7; SMC: subjective memory complaint; MCI: mild cognitive impairment; NSAIDs: non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; USA: United States of America; UK: United Kingdom.