This population-based cohort study investigates the association between osteoarthritis (OA) and dementia as well as the connection between NSAIDs and dementia.
We chose the samples from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database and then divided them into two groups, which were then matched 1: 1 by propensity score. The first group was the OA group that contained patients with newly diagnosed OA and the second group was the non-OA group. We used the χ2 test, Student t test, Kaplan-Meier analysis, and Cox proportional hazard model for different purposes.
The prevalence of dementia in the OA group was higher than that in the non-OA group. The adjusted hazard ratio of the former was 1.42 (95% CI, 1.30-1.54). We also found that etoricoxib and diclofenac might reduce the incidence of dementia.
Patients with OA might have a higher risk of dementia. Both etoricoxib and diclofenac might lower the risk of dementia in patients with OA.