Herpes Zoster Does Not Increase the Risk of Neurodegenerative Dementia: A Case-Control Study
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Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the association between neurodegenerative dementia and herpes zoster infection (HZI) using a national sample cohort. Methods: From the national cohort study conducted by the Korean National Health Insurance Service, we extracted data for patients with neurodegenerative dementia and for 1:4 matched control participants and searched the patient histories for HZI. Results: The adjusted odds ratio (OR) for HZI was 0.90 (95% CI = 0.84-0.97) in the dementia group. According to the subgroup analysis, the adjusted OR for HZI was 0.91 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.83 -1.00) in the < 80 years old group, 0.88 (95% CI = 0.78 -1.00) in the ≥ 80 years old group, 0.77 (95% CI = 0.66-0.89) in men and 0.96 (95% CI = 0.88 -1.05) in women. Conclusions: We concluded that HZI does not increase the risk of neurodegenerative dementia in individuals of any age or of either sex.
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Some studies have failed to find a link between VZV and AD, including those that utilize electronic health records or titer measurements.
“However, some studies have failed to find a link between VZV and AD, including those that utilize electronic health records or titer measurements [25,41,42].”
From What would it take to prove that a chronic infection is a causal agent in Alzheimer’s disease? (2025) · cites this paper as [41]
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Herpes Zoster and Dementia: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study
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“17).(10) However, 2 previous studies showed that there was no difference in the amount of VZV DNA detected in postmortem brain samples and serum antiviral antibody titers of VZV between the Alzheimer’s disease group and the control group.”
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What would it take to prove that a chronic infection is a causal agent in Alzheimer’s disease?
Brutkiewicz, R. R., Cao, W., Morgan, D., Reis, R. S. D., Suryadevara, V., Willette, A. A., Willette, S. A., Wyatt-Johnson, S. K., & Duggan, M. R. (2025) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/j.tins.2025.05.009 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Choi, H. G., Park, B. J., Lim, J. S., Sim, S. Y., Jung, Y. J., & Lee, S. W.
- Affiliations
- Hallym University (KR)
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Republic of Korea
- Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital (KR)
- Corresponding author
- Lee, Suk Woo
- Venue
- American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias®
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2021-01-01
- Volume
- 36
- Pages
- 15333175211006504-15333175211006504
- ISSN
- 0888-4897 (ISSN-L)
- 1533-3175
- 1938-2731
- PMC
- PMC11005322
- OpenAlex
- W3153572875
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3
- FWCI
- 6.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- American Journal of Alzheimer s Disease & Other Dementias® (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2015-R1D1A1A01060860)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Herpesvirus Infections and Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Cytomegalovirus and herpesvirus research
- Keywords
- herpes zoster, neurodegenerative dementia, dementia risk, Alzheimer's disease, sex differences, age differences, older adults
- MeSH terms
- Aged, 80 and over, Dementia, Female, Herpes Zoster, Humans, Male, National Health Programs, Risk Factors, Cohort Studies, Incidence, Case-Control Studies
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