Colonic diverticular disease may increase dementia risk

(HealthDay)—Patients with colonic diverticular disease may be at an increased risk for dementia, according to a study published Nov. 23 in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Yen-Chun Peng, M.D., from National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan, and colleagues analyzed data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database to create a cohort of 66,377 sex-matched, age-matched, and index-year-matched (1-to-4) pairs of patients with colonic diverticular disease and 265,508 patients without colonic diverticular disease (controls). Incident cases of dementia were identified from 2000 to 2011.

The researchers found that during follow-up there were 1,057 dementia cases in the diverticular disease cohort. The overall incidence rate of dementia was significantly higher in the group with disease versus the control group (3.35 versus 2.43 per 1,000 person-years). After the researchers adjusted for age, sex, and comorbidities, the adjusted hazard ratio for dementia was 1.24 for diverticular disease patients.

"Colonic diverticular disease may be associated with increased risk for dementia," the authors write.