Hospitalization and Dementia

Hospitalization associated with dementia in older adults.
The Los Angeles Times (2/23, Kaplan) "Booster Shots" blog reported that, in a study published Feb. 24 in the Journal of the American Medical Association examining "the records of 2,929 senior citizens," researchers found that those "who were hospitalized for a noncritical illness were 40% more likely to develop dementia than their counterparts who were never hospitalized."
"Seniors hospitalized for a critical illness, such as shock or needing a mechanical ventilator to breathe, were also found to be at higher risk of dementia," WebMD (2/23, Hendrick) reported.
HealthDay (2/23, Preidt) explained that even though reasons for the study's findings were unclear, one of the authors theorized that "factors associated with acute illness, and to a greater degree with critical illness, may be causally related to cognitive decline." For example, some of the "possible mechanisms through which critical illness could contribute to cognitive decline" include "hypoxemia (decreased partial pressure of oxygen in blood), delirium, low blood pressure, glucose dysregulation, inflammation, and sedative and analgesic medications, the report indicated."