In this nationwide Finnish registry study of more than 62,000 dementia cases and 300,000 controls, researchers found that severe infections—particularly cystitis and systemic bacterial infections—were associated with an increased risk of subsequent dementia independent of 27 identified noninfectious comorbid conditions, including cardiometabolic, psychiatric, and neurologic diseases. These findings suggest that severe infections may act as independent contributors to dementia risk, potentially through inflammatory or vascular mechanisms, rather than serving solely as markers of underlying multimorbidity.

Source: PLOS Medicine