A US study showed that people over the age of 66 who received one dose of the shingles vaccine were 24% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over the next four years.
“[This] translates into about one in 17 cases of dementia that could potentially be prevented through vaccination,” lead author Kaley Hayes, PharmD, PhD, associate director of Pharmacoepidemiology at Brown University’s School of Public Health, told CIDRAP News. “Honestly, the results took us by surprise. However, they are indeed consistent with other studies that have mostly included the older form of the vaccine.”
Scientists studied 509,926 people who were in nursing homes between 2017 and 2022, 8,853 of whom were vaccinated when they were discharged. Researchers then followed their medical records for four years.
They do not know how the two are connected, but one theory is that shingles increases the risk of vascular events, such as stroke, which is a known risk factor for dementia.
There are some limitations to the study. Real-world data differ from data collected in a randomized controlled trial, Hayes said. Researchers also did not have a “good definition of a new dementia diagnosis.” They examined factors such as doctor visits and new prescriptions for dementia medication as substitute indicators of such a diagnosis.
Source: University of Minnesota
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