Psychiatry Investig.  2022 Apr;19(4):247-258. 10.30773/pi.2021.0277.

Real-World Evidence for the Association Between Pneumonia-Related Intensive Care Unit Stay and Dementia

• Wu CH
• Peng CK
• Chung CH
• Chien WC
• Tzeng NS

• KMID: 2529255
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2021.0277

Abstract

Objective
There is limited clarity concerning the risk of dementia after pneumonia with intensive care unit (ICU) stay. We conducted a nationwide cohort study, which aimed to investigate the impact of dementia after pneumonia with and without intensive care unit admission.
Methods
Data was obtained from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database between 2000 and 2015. A total of 7,473 patients were identified as having pneumonia required ICU stay, along with 22,419 controls matched by sex and age. After adjusting for confounding factors, multivariate Cox regression model analysis was used to compare the risk of developing dementia during the 15-years follow-up period.
Results
The enrolled pneumonia patients with ICU admission had a dementia rate of 9.89%. Pneumonia patients without ICU admission had a dementia rate of 9.21%. The multivariate Cox regression model analysis revealed that the patients with ICU stay had the higher risk of dementia, with a crude hazard ratio of 3.371 (95% confidence interval, 3.093–3.675; p<0.001).
Conclusion
This study indicated that pneumonia with ICU stay is associated with an increased risk of dementia. A 3-fold risk of dementia was observed in patients admitted to the ICU compared to the control group.

Keyword

Dementia; Pneumonia; Intensive care