Chronic and New Anxiety Linked to Higher Dementia Risk in Under-70s, but Timely Treatment Can Mitigate Risk: Study

Australia: The study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society on 24 July 2024, revealed that chronic and newly developed anxiety is linked to a higher risk of all-cause dementia, with the association being particularly significant in individuals aged 70 and younger.

These findings suggest that addressing anxiety promptly could be an effective strategy for lowering the risk of dementia. 

Dementia is defined as a problem that interferes with daily life. It is a general term that is used to define the loss of memory, language, thinking abilities, and problem–solving abilities. It is caused by abnormal brain changes. Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia. Dementia was the seventh-leading cause of death globally and the second-leading cause of death in high-income countries in 2020. Considering this Kay Khaing MMed, from the University of Newcastle, New Lambton Heights, Australia, et. Al conducted a study to evaluate the longitudinal association between the risk of dementia from all causes and the presence of chronic, resolved, or new-onset anxiety.

To achieve this, the research team studied 2132 residents of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, who were between the ages of 55 and 85. Under permission from the University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Committee, they undertake research using longitudinal data from the Hunter Community Study. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) was used to quantify anxiety. Recruitment took place for the participants from December 2004 to December 2007. To determine the risk of dementia, the Fine-Gray sub-distribution hazard model was calculated.

The study contained participants' health and demographic information. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used to measure depression. Depression was classified as a dichotomous variable and indicated by a total score of 16 or above, which was determined by adding the 20 items (which have a range of 0 to 60). For continuous data, the student-t test was employed, and for categorical data, the chi-square test.

The findings revealed that:

• While resolved anxiety was not linked with all-cause dementia risk, chronic anxiety and new onset anxiety at follow-up were, with an average time to dementia diagnosis of 10 years (SD = 1.7).
• Among participants under 70 years of age, both chronic and new anxiety were the main drivers of these outcomes in subgroup analyses.
• Highly comparable outcomes were obtained using sensitivity analyses that addressed reverse causation and imputed missing data.

“As a potentially modifiable risk factor for dementia, anxiety suggests that middle-aged and "young" older persons may benefit from anxiety management to lower their lifetime chance of developing dementia. Particularly among people 70 years of age and under, persistent anxiety and fresh anxiety at follow-up were linked to an elevated risk of dementia from all causes.”, researchers concluded.

Reference

Khaing, K., Dolja-Gore, X., Nair, B. R., Byles, J., & Attia, J. (2024). The effect of anxiety on all-cause dementia: A longitudinal analysis from the Hunter Community Study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.19078