Trends in Cardiovascular Mortality Among Patients With Alzheimer's Disease in the United States from 1999 to 2020

Abstract

This study aimed to compare the trends in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs)-related mortality in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in the general population aged ≥65 years. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research Multiple Cause of Death dataset were used to determine national trends in age-adjusted CVD mortality rates (AAMR) and average annual percent change (AAPC) values in patients with AD and the overall population aged ≥65 years from 1999 to 2020. Data for AAMR and AAPCs were also stratified by age, gender, ethnicity/race, geographical region, urbanization status, and subgroups of CVD. Trends in the overall AAMR stratified by gender, age, ethnicity/race, geographical region, urbanization status, and CVD subgroups were statistically different between patients with AD and the overall population (overall AAPC for CVD mortality rate in patients with AD = -3.5% [confidence interval -4.1% to -2.9%] vs -2.6% [confidence interval -2.3% to -2.9%] in overall population, p = 0.01). Differences in the decrease in the mortality rates between patients with AD and the overall population were found to be statistically different across all stratifications except for the change in the mortality rates for hypertensive diseases (p = 0.05), females (p = 0.2), and Asian or Pacific Islanders (p = 0.09). In conclusion, CVD-related mortality in patients with AD decreased over the last 2 decades, and decreases were more prominent than seen in the general population aged ≥65 years. These results may help focus public health efforts to optimize CVD health in patients with AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; cardiovascular-mortality.