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Herpes Zoster Vaccination Reduces Risk of Dementia
Steven Lehrer1, Peter H Rheinstein2
1Department of Radiation Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, U.S.A.; steven.lehrer@mssm.edu.
Abstract:
Background/Αim: The relationship of herpes viruses and herpes zoster (HZ) with dementia and Alzheimer's disease is controversial. This study evaluated the relationship between HZ vaccination and cognitive impairment.
Patients And Methods:
We used data from The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to evaluate the relationship between HZ vaccination and cognitive impairment.
Results:
Using BRFSS 2017 data, we assessed HZ vaccination status in 275 subjects whose social activities were hampered by disorientation or memory loss. 61.6% of vaccinated subjects (n=61) and 46.6% of unvaccinated subjects (n=82) never had social activities hampered by disorientation or memory loss. The result is significant (p=0.025, two- sided Fisher exact test). The results of multivariate linear regression analysis, considering social activities hampered by disorientation or memory loss as a dependent variable, and vaccination (yes or no), sex, and education level as independent variables, showed that the effect of vaccination--reducing risk of social activities hampered by disorientation or memory loss--was significant (p=0.03).
Conclusion:
Our finding that HZ vaccination reduces the risk of dementia is consistent with the link between viruses and AD. Herpes viruses-induced reactivation of embryologic pathways silenced at birth could be one of the pathologic processes in Alzheimer's disease.
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