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. 2021 Jan-Dec:36:15333175211006504.
doi: 10.1177/15333175211006504.

Herpes Zoster Does Not Increase the Risk of Neurodegenerative Dementia: A Case-Control Study

Hyo Geun Choi  1   2 , Bum Jung Park  1 , Jae Sung Lim  3 , Song Yong Sim  4 , Yoon Jung Jung  5 , Suk Woo Lee  5
Affiliations

Herpes Zoster Does Not Increase the Risk of Neurodegenerative Dementia: A Case-Control Study

Hyo Geun Choi et al. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2021 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the association between neurodegenerative dementia and herpes zoster infection (HZI) using a national sample cohort.

Methods: From the national cohort study conducted by the Korean National Health Insurance Service, we extracted data for patients with neurodegenerative dementia and for 1:4 matched control participants and searched the patient histories for HZI.

Results: The adjusted odds ratio (OR) for HZI was 0.90 (95% CI = 0.84-0.97) in the dementia group. According to the subgroup analysis, the adjusted OR for HZI was 0.91 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.83 -1.00) in the < 80 years old group, 0.88 (95% CI = 0.78 -1.00) in the ≥ 80 years old group, 0.77 (95% CI = 0.66-0.89) in men and 0.96 (95% CI = 0.88 -1.05) in women.

Conclusions: We concluded that HZI does not increase the risk of neurodegenerative dementia in individuals of any age or of either sex.

Keywords: cohort study; dementia; epidemiology; herpes zoster; nested case-control study.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Schematic illustration of the participant selection process that was used in the present study. Of a total of 1,125,691 participants, 11,445 dementia participants were matched with 45,780 control participants with respect to age, group, sex, income, region of residence, and medical history.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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