Pre-existing mental health conditions increase the risk of Vascular dementia post COVID-19 infection: Study

A new study published in the Nature Partner Journal Dementia showed that COVID-19 survivors 50 years of age and older were more likely to experience new-onset dementia (NOD) when compared to uninfected controls.

According to current research, persons 50 years of age and older who are recuperating from COVID-19 may be more susceptible to new-onset vascular dementia. Vascular cognitive loss may result from the infection's prothrombotic effects, endothelial damage, and systemic inflammation, which can reduce cerebral blood flow.

This risk may also be increased by post-COVID metabolic abnormalities and pre-existing comorbidities. Early identification, prevention, and therapy of cognitive impairment in the elderly population after infection depend on an understanding of the pathways relating COVID-19 to vascular dementia. Thus, the purpose of this work was to use secondary data analysis of the UK Biobank (UKBB) public dataset to do a longitudinal cohort study.

The prevalences of both non-COVID respiratory illnesses (including both non-communicable respiratory conditions and non-COVID respiratory tract infections) and dementia (including all-cause dementia, AD, and VaD) in these individuals were compared to those in propensity-score-matched controls who did not have COVID-19.

The findings of this research discovered that, in comparison to uninfected controls, COVID-19 survivors were more likely to develop NOD. VaD was the main cause of this elevated risk rather than AD, although the risk was not higher than that seen in those with respiratory conditions other than COVID. Significantly greater odds of VaD after COVID-19 infection were observed in those with pre-existing mental health disorders, making them more vulnerable.

Overall, all things considered, this study added to the increasing amount of data that suggests COVID-19 infection may raise the risk of NOD, especially VaD, but not AD. A wider influence of respiratory disorders on cognitive health may be indicated by the fact that this additional risk did not seem to be much greater than that seen in those with non-COVID respiratory diseases, including non-COVID respiratory tract infections. Research on the long-term cognitive effects of COVID-19 and ongoing surveillance are essential given the significant societal burden of dementia.

Reference:

Shan, D., Xu, Y., Yang, C., Crawford, T. J., & Holland, C. (2025). COVID-19 infection associated with increased risk of new-onset vascular dementia in adults ≥50 years. NPJ Dementia, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44400-025-00034-y