Neurology: Dementia risk in patients with late-onset epilepsy.

A study published recently in Neurology, an authoritative journal in the field of neurology, aims to identify the risk of dementia after late seizures.
researchers used data from the Community Atherosclerosis Risk (ARIC) Cohort Study, which began between 1987 and 1989 with 15,792 blacks and whites from four communities in the United States.
researchers identified late-onset epilepsy (LOE; seizures that begin at age 67 or later) based on relevant Medicare claim data.
Based on neuropsychological tests, interviews, and discharge monitoring, the researchers assessed the association between LOE and dementia by 2017 using cox proportional risk regression models;
9,033 ARIC participants had sufficient health insurance coverage data (4,980 women and 1993 blacks), 671 of whom met the LOE definition.
279 (41.6%) participants with LOE and 1408 (16.8%) without LOE had dementia in the same period.
diagnosis of LOE, the adjusted risk ratio for developing secondary dementia was 3.05 (95% CI was 2.65-3.51).
of dementia was 3.66 years (Q1-Q3 was 1.28-8.28 years) after LOE attacks.
result, the risk of developing dementia in loE patients increases significantly.
further work is needed to explore the reasons for the increased risk of dementia in this growing LOE population.
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