Dement Neurocogn Disord.  2018 Dec;17(4):156-162. 10.12779/dnd.2018.17.4.156.

Association of Alzheimer's Disease with the Risk of Developing Epilepsy: a 10-Year Nationwide Cohort Study

• Lyou HJ
• Seo KD
• Lee JE
• Pak HY
• Lee JH

• KMID: 2442786
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.12779/dnd.2018.17.4.156

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Previous studies have reported conflicting results about the prevalence of seizures in Alzheimer's disease (AD). There are few epidemiological studies on this topic in Asia. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine demographic and clinical characteristics as well as incidence for seizures in AD patients compared to non-AD patients in a prospective, longitudinal, community-based cohort with a long follow-up.
METHODS
Data were collected from National Health Insurance Service-National Elderly Cohort (NHIS-elderly) Database to define patients with AD from 2004-2006 using Korean Classification Diseases codes G30 and F00. We performed a 1:5 case-control propensity score matching based on age, sex, and household income. We conducted Cox proportional hazards regression analysis to estimate the risk of epilepsy in AD patients.
RESULTS
In the cohort study, patients with AD had higher risk for epilepsy than those without AD, with hazard ratio of 2.773 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.515-3.057). This study also showed that male gender and comorbidities such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease increased the risk of developing epilepsy. Patients with AD had 1.527 (95% CI, 1.375-1.695) times higher mortality rate than those in the control group.
CONCLUSIONS
AD patients have significantly higher risk of developing epilepsy than non-AD patients.

Keyword

Alzheimer Disease; Epilepsy; Mortality; Population

MeSH Terms

Aged
Alzheimer Disease*
Asia
Case-Control Studies
Classification
Cohort Studies*
Comorbidity
Epidemiologic Studies
Epilepsy*
Family Characteristics
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Hyperlipidemias
Hypertension
Incidence
Male
Mortality
National Health Programs
Prevalence
Propensity Score
Prospective Studies
Renal Insufficiency, Chronic
Seizures

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Comparison of epilepsy occurrence risk between non-AD and AD patients. AD: Alzheimer's disease.

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  Fig. 2 Comparison of the survival rate between non-AD and AD patients. AD: Alzheimer's disease.

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