Chronic and New-Onset Anxiety Linked to All-Cause Dementia

Associations seen for chronic and new-onset anxiety, but not for resolved anxiety, with all-cause dementia risk

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 7, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Chronic and new-onset anxiety are associated with an increased risk for all-cause dementia, especially among those aged younger than 70 years, according to a study published online July 24 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Kay Khaing, from the University of Newcastle in New Lambton Heights, Australia, and colleagues examined the longitudinal association between chronic versus resolved versus new-onset anxiety and all-cause dementia risk among 2,132 individuals (mean age, 76 years) recruited from the Hunter Community Study. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale was used to measure anxiety.

The researchers observed associations for chronic anxiety and new-onset anxiety at follow-up with all-cause dementia risk (hazard ratios, 2.80 and 3.20, respectively), with an average time to dementia diagnosis of 10 years; no association was seen for resolved anxiety. These results were driven by chronic and new-onset anxiety among participants younger than 70 years in subgroup analyses (hazard ratios, 4.58 and 7.21, respectively). Very similar results were seen in sensitivity analyses imputing missing data and addressing reverse causation.

“These findings support anxiety as a potential modifiable risk factor for dementia and point to the possible role of managing anxiety in middle aged and ‘young’ older adults to reduce the risk of dementia in later life,” the authors write.