Risk of dementia in primary aldosteronism compared with essential hypertension: a nationwide cohort study

Although hypertension is a critical risk factor for dementia, the association between primary aldosteronism (PA) and dementia has been scarcely reported. We aimed to investigate whether the risk of dementia in patients with PA was elevated compared with patients with essential hypertension (EH).

From the National Health Insurance Claim database in Korea (2003-2017), 3,687 patients with PA (adrenalectomy [ADX], n = 1,339, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist [MRA] n = 2,348) with no prior dementia were age- and sex-matched at a 1:4 ratio to patients with EH (n = 14,741). The primary outcomes were all-cause dementia events, including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, or other dementia combined with a prescription of one or more medications for dementia (donepezil, galantamine, memantine, or rivastigmine). Multivariable Cox regression models were used to evaluate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals for the outcome incidence rates between patients with PA and their EH matches.

During a median follow-up of 5.2 years, there were 156 cases of all-cause dementia (4.2%), 140 cases of Alzheimer's disease (3.8%), and 65 cases of vascular dementia (1.8%). Compared with EH, the risk of all-cause dementia was increased in treated PA (unadjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.26; p < 0.011). Among PA, MRA group had higher risks of all-cause dementia, especially vascular dementia, adjusted for age, sex, income, comorbidities, and concurrent medication (adjusted HR 1.31; p = 0.027 and adjusted HR 1.62; p = 0.020, respectively) compared to EH. ADX group seemed to have a lower dementia risk than the EH group, but there was no statistical significance after full adjustment. This trend became more prominent when the dementia risks were evaluated from the time of hypertension diagnosis rather than treatment initiation for PA.

The findings of this cohort study suggest that PA, especially the MRA group, is associated with an increased risk of dementia. Monitoring cognitive function in PA patients even after treatment initiation might be warranted to prevent dementia.