Dementia more common in adults with HIV

(HealthDay)—People older than 50 years with HIV are more likely to have dementia than people without HIV, according to a study published online Nov. 24 in AIDS.

Jennifer O. Lam, from Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland, and colleagues compared dementia incidence and prevalence after age 50 years by HIV status. The analysis included 13,296 people with HIV and 155,354 without HIV identified from Kaiser Permanente electronic medical records (2000 to 2016).

The researchers found that during the study period, the overall incidence of dementia was higher among people with HIV (adjusted incidence rate ratio, 1.80). For the most recent time period (2015 to 2016), dementia incidence decreased among both individuals with and without HIV (−8.0 and −3.1 percent, respectively), but remained higher among people with HIV (adjusted incidence rate ratio, 1.58). During the entire study period, the overall prevalence of dementia was higher among those with HIV (adjusted prevalence ratio, 1.86), with similar prevalence findings seen for those with HIV in the most recent period (2015 to 2016; adjusted prevalence ratio, 1.75).

"Reductions in dementia incidence are encouraging and may reflect antiretroviral therapy improvement, but people with HIV are still more likely to have dementia than people without HIV," the authors write. "Monitoring the burden of dementia among people with HIV is important as this population ages."

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