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. 2021 Jul 13;76(8):1436-1443.
doi: 10.1093/gerona/glab115.

Lower Risk for Dementia Following Adult Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis (Tdap) Vaccination

Jeffrey F Scherrer  1   2   3 , Joanne Salas  1   2   3 , Timothy L Wiemken  3   4   5   6 , Christine Jacobs  1   3 , John E Morley  7 , Daniel F Hoft  5   6   8
Affiliations

Lower Risk for Dementia Following Adult Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis (Tdap) Vaccination

Jeffrey F Scherrer et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. .

Abstract

Background: Adult vaccinations may reduce risk for dementia. However, it has not been established whether tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (Tdap) vaccination is associated with incident dementia.

Methods: Hypotheses were tested in a Veterans Health Affairs (VHA) cohort and replicated in a MarketScan medical claims cohort. Patients were at least 65 years of age and free of dementia for 2 years prior to index date. Patients either had or did not have a Tdap vaccination by the start of either of the 2 index periods (2011 or 2012). Follow-up continued through 2018. Controls had no Tdap vaccination for the duration of follow-up. Confounding was controlled using entropy balancing. Competing risk (VHA) and Cox proportional hazard (MarketScan) models estimated the association between Tdap vaccination and incident dementia in all patients and age subgroups (65-69, 70-74, and ≥75 years).

Results: VHA patients were, on average, 75.6 (SD ± 7.5) years of age, 4% female, and 91.2% were White. MarketScan patients were 69.8 (SD ± 5.6) years of age, on average and 65.4% were female. After controlling for confounding, patients with, compared to without, Tdap vaccination had a significantly lower risk for dementia in both cohorts (VHA: hazard ratio [HR] = 0.58; 95% confidence interval [CI]:0.54-0.63 and MarketScan: HR = 0.58; 95% CI:0.48-0.70).

Conclusions: Tdap vaccination was associated with a 42% lower dementia risk in 2 cohorts with different clinical and sociodemographic characteristics. Several vaccine types are linked to decreased dementia risk, suggesting that these associations are due to nonspecific effects on inflammation rather than vaccine-induced pathogen-specific protective effects.

Keywords: Cohort; Dementia; Epidemiology; Tdap; Vaccination.

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Comment in

  • Adult Vaccination, Getting to Know Their Nonspecific Effects.
    Greenblatt CL, Bercovier H, Klein BY, Gofrit ON. Greenblatt CL, et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2021 Sep 13;76(10):e235-e236. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glab202. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2021. PMID: 34245285 No abstract available.
  • Lower Risk of Dementia Adds to Lengthy List of Reasons to Be Vaccinated.
    Gerontological Society of America National Adult Vaccination Program Workgroup. Gerontological Society of America National Adult Vaccination Program Workgroup. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2021 Jul 13;76(8):1435. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glab158. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2021. PMID: 34255823 No abstract available.

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