OBJECTIVES

: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and dementia.

METHODS

: In this population-based cohort study elderly patients (≥65 years) with NAFLD diagnosed between 2000 and 2015 were matched 1:1 to a cohort without NAFLD based on ICD-10 coding in the Disease Analyzer Database. Matching criteria were age, sex, physician, index year, and co-diagnoses associated with dementia. The primary outcomes of this study were all-cause-dementia diagnoses, the incidence of vascular dementia and antidementive drug prescription.

RESULTS

: 22,317 patients with NAFLD were matched to 22,317 patients without NAFLD. Within 10 years of the index date, 16.0% of patients with NAFLD and 15.6% of the patients without NAFLD were diagnosed with dementia. On Cox-regression analysis, no association between NAFLD and the incidence of all-cause-dementia (HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.92 – 1.04), vascular dementia (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.78 – 1.02) or the new prescription of antidementive therapy (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.76 – 1.01). In sensitivity analyses, there was no association between NAFLD and dementia in different age groups as well as men or women.

CONCLUSIONS : NAFLD constitutes no risk factor that independently of other metabolic factors contributes to the incidence of dementia. Risk assessment regarding dementia in patients with NAFLD should be carried out in the same way as for metabolic burdened patients.