TUESDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) -- Statin use is associated with a significant decline in dementia and other cognitive impairment, according to the July 29 issue of Neurology.
Caryn Cramer, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor and colleagues examined the relationship between statin use and incidence of dementia and cognitive impairment without dementia in 1,789 older Mexican-Americans participating in a population-based cohort study. Cognitive and clinical evaluations were performed every 12 to 15 months, and statin use was verified via in-home assessment.
During the study, 452 of 1,674 participants were taking statins at some time, and 130 developed dementia or cognitive impairment without dementia during five years of follow-up. Patients taking statins were 48 percent less likely to develop dementia or cognitive impairment without dementia in adjusted analyses.
"We found statin use to be associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of dementia/CIND (cognitive impairment without dementia) among a representative sample of community-dwelling Mexican Americans which was unaffected by confounding for key covariates," the authors write. " Additional questions and future research suggested in particular by this analysis involve the investigation of differences of statin use and association of dementia and CIND in individuals with stroke and diabetes, and the impact of statins on CIND and subtypes of dementia."
Cramer was an employee of Pfizer during the completion of the study.
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