Association of COVID-19 with New-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
Open accessAbstract
An infectious etiology of Alzheimer’s disease has been postulated for decades. It remains unknown whether SARS-CoV-2 viral infection is associated with increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease. In this retrospective cohort study of 6,245,282 older adults (age ≥65 years) who had medical encounters between 2/2020–5/2021, we show that people with COVID-19 were at significantly increased risk for new diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease within 360 days after the initial COVID-19 diagnosis (hazard ratio or HR:1.69, 95% CI: 1.53–1.72), especially in people age ≥85 years and in women. Our findings call for research to understand the underlying mechanisms and for continuous surveillance of long-term impacts of COVID-19 on Alzheimer’s disease.
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COVID-19 patients with long or post-acute sequelae have increased risk of AD.
“Many COVID-19 patients diagnosed with some long or post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 such as brain atrophy and memory decline, greatly increasing the risk of AD.602,603”
From Recent advances in Alzheimer's disease: Mechanisms, clinical trials and new drug development strategies. (2024) · cites this paper as [603]
The Abstract and Results report that adults aged 65 or older with COVID-19 had a higher risk of a new Alzheimer’s diagnosis within 360 days than matched adults without COVID-19. The study does not establish that the increased risk was specifically among patients with long or post-acute sequelae, or that brain atrophy or memory decline caused it. The citing sentence also presents an association as a causal increase. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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1 retracted
Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission
Livingston, G., Huntley, J., Sommerlad, A., Ames, D., Ballard, C., Banerjee, S., Brayne, C., Burns, A., Cohen-Mansfield, J., Cooper, C., et al. (2020) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30367-6 · Cited by 10,430 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Cohorts were propensity-score matched (1:1 using a nearest neighbor greedy matching) for demographics, adverse socioeconomical determinants of health including problems with education, occupational exposure, physical, social and psychosocial environment, and known risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease [13] (details in…”
MethodRetractedHow COVID-19 Affects the Brain
Boldrini, M., Canoll, P., & Klein, R. S. (2021) · JAMA Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.0500 · Cited by 428 · see citing works
Wang, Q., Davis, P. B., Gurney, M. E., & Xu, R. (2021) · Alzheimer's & Dementia · doi:10.1002/alz.12296 · Cited by 257 · see citing works
Self-citationDo infections have a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease?
Itzhaki, R. F., Golde, T. E., Heneka, M. T., & Readhead, B. (2020) · Nature Reviews Neurology · doi:10.1038/s41582-020-0323-9 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
Wang, L., Berger, N. A., Kaelber, D. C., Davis, P. B., Volkow, N. D., & Xu, R. (2022) · Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine · doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.0945 · Cited by 150 · see citing works
Self-citationWang, L., Wang, Q., Davis, P. B., Volkow, N. D., & Xu, R. (2021) · World Psychiatry · doi:10.1002/wps.20921 · Cited by 126 · see citing works
Self-citationWang, W. J., Kaelber, D. C., Xu, R., & Berger, N. A. (2022) · JAMA Oncology · doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.1096 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Self-citationFriend, Foe or Both? Immune Activity in Alzheimer’s Disease
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Wang, L., Kaelber, D. C., Xu, R., & Berger, N. A. (2022) · Blood Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.blre.2022.100931 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Self-citationWang, L., Davis, P. B., Kaelber, D. C., Volkow, N. D., & Xu, R. (2022) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2022.0210 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Self-citationWang, L., Berger, N. A., & Xu, R. (2021) · JAMA Network Open · doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.37575 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Self-citationWang, L., Davis, P. B., Kaelber, D. C., & Xu, R. (2022) · Alzheimer s & Dementia · doi:10.1002/alz.12669 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
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Zhang, J., Zhang, Y., Wang, J., Xia, Y., Zhang, J., & Chen, L. (2024) · Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy · doi:10.1038/s41392-024-01911-3 · Cited by 1,138 · see citing works
COVID-19 as a Risk Factor for Alzheimer’s Disease
Golzari-Sorkheh, M., Weaver, D. F., & Reed, M. A. (2023) · Journal of Alzheimer's Disease · doi:10.3233/jad-220800 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
The Role of Genetic, Environmental, and Dietary Factors in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Narrative Review
Mertaş, B., & Boşgelmez, İ. İ. (2025) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · doi:10.3390/ijms26031222 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
- Authors
- Wang, L., Davis, P. B., Volkow, N. D., Berger, N. A., Kaelber, D. C., & Xu, R.
- Affiliations
- Case Western Reserve University (US)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- MetroHealth (US)
- Corresponding author
- Xu, Rong
- Venue
- Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2022-09-13
- Volume
- 89
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 411-414
- ISSN
- 1387-2877 (ISSN-L)
- 1875-8908
- PMC
- PMC10361652
- OpenAlex
- W4288702326
- Cited by
- 178
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 59 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 10 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 21.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Alzheimer s Disease (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University (P30 CA043703, CA043703, P20 CA2332216)
- National Institutes of Health (UL1TR002548)
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01AA029831)
- National Institute on Aging (R01AG061388, R56AG062272, RF1AG076649, R01AG057557, R01AG076649)
- National Cancer Institute (CA043703, CA2332216, P20CA233216, P30CA043703, R25CA221718)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 Testing, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Female, Humans, Retrospective Studies
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