Association of Anticholinergic Use with Incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease: Population-based Cohort Study

Drugs with strong anticholinergic properties are used under a variety of conditions; however, they can cause various adverse effects including a negative impact on cognitive functions, with older adults being more susceptible to these effects. We explored whether the use of anticholinergic agents (ACs) affects the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in terms of incidence by using National Health Insurance Service elderly cohort database (2002–2013). As a result, AD risk was higher in subjects with an increased amount of prescriptions for strong ACs over a long period of time (9–12 years) than that in the least-exposed reference group (0–9 dose/year) [hazard ratio (HR) (95% confidence interval (95% CI)) 0.99 (0.95–1.03), 1.19 (1.12–1.26), 1.39 (1.30–1.50); in the 10–49 doses/year, 50–119 doses/year, and ≥120 doses/year groups]. Hazard ratios were particularly high in the young-old subgroup (60–64 years old in 2002) [HR (95% CI) 1.11 (1.04–1.22), 1.43 (1.25–1.65), 1.83 (1.56–2.14); in the 10–49 doses/year, 50–119 doses/year, and ≥120 doses/year groups]. Use of strong ACs dose-dependently increased the risk of AD in terms of incidence when exposure was followed up for 9 years or more, and the association was greater in the young-old subgroup.