Analysis of Cardiovascular Medication Use in Dementia Patients

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Dementia is one of important social and economic healthcare issues in the aging age. Therefore, it signifies to analyze the relationship between chronic disease or cardiovascular drug use and the incidence of dementia to establish a basis for increasing or preventing the risk of dementia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between the prevalence of chronic diseases and the use of cardiovascular drugs in patients diagnosed with dementia. METHODS: In this study, we used data from sample of elderly patients from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. We analyzed by logistic regression analysis with age, gender, and medication as covariates. KCD-7 was used to diagnosis of the disease, and drugs were analyzed using ATC codes and Korean standardized drug classification codes. RESULTS: A total of 1,276,331 patients were analyzed in the sample of the elderly population, of which 532,075 (41.7%) were male and 744,256 (58.3%) were female. The patients have the higher risk of dementia in the older, women, and lower socioeconomically status. Cerebral infarction and ischemic heart disease increases risk of dementia. Patients taking statins, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) or angiotensin II receptor antagonists (ARB) showed low incidence of dementia. CONCLUSION: This study has been shown that ACEI, ARB, and statin drugs may associate with lower incidence of Alzheimer's and other dementia except vascular dementia.