Both high and low levels of haemoglobin are linked to increased risk of developing dementia in old age, Dutch researchers reported last night.
The association with anaemia is particularly strong, according to the findings published in Neurology.
Researchers began tracking more than 12,000 people at the age of 65 for a period of 12 years.
At the outset 6% had anaemia and during the course of the study some 1,520 people developed dementia. Out of these 1,194 had Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers at the Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, found that people with anaemia were 41% more likely than others to develop Alzheimer’s disease and 34% more likely to develop any kind of dementia.
Those with the highest levels of haemoglobin were 20% more likely than those with median levels to develop dementia.
The researchers say their findings do not show whether irregular haemoglobin levels cause dementia or are a marker of incipient disease or suggest a common underlying factor.
Researcher Dr Arfan Ikram said: “With around 10% of people over age 65 having anaemia in the Americas and Europe and up to 45% in African and southeast Asian countries, these results could have important implications for the burden of dementia, especially as the prevalence of dementia is expected to increase threefold over the next decades, with the largest increases predicted in the countries where the anaemia rate is the highest."
He added: “More research is needed to determine whether haemoglobin levels play a direct role in this increased risk or whether these associations can be explained by underlying issues or other vascular or metabolic changes."
Neurology 31 July 2019
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