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Mikkola and colleagues examined the association between use of hormone therapy (HT) and death from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or vascular dementia (VaD) in a sample of 489,105 Finnish women who had documented use of systemic HT on a nationwide drug reimbursement register [1]. A nationwide Finnish death register indicated that 1057 of those women died of AD and 581 died of VaD. Findings revealed that, compared to population averages, women who used HT for at least 5 years had a 15–19% reduced risk of death from AD, and use of HT for any period of time was associated with a 37–39% reduced risk of death from VaD. No reduction in AD was observed among women who used HT for less than 5 years, nor did age at initiation (< 60 years versus > 60 years) influence risk of AD or VaD.

Author(s)

  • Pauline Maki
    Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, Center for Cognitive Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA

Citations

  1. Mikkola TS, Savolainen-Peltonen H, Tuomikoski P, et al. Lower death risk for vascular dementia than for Alzheimer’s disease with postmenopausal hormone therapy users. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2017;102:870-7
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27906568
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