ArticleTranslational psychiatry2022
Are infections associated with cognitive decline and neuroimaging outcomes? A historical cohort study using data from the UK Biobank study linked to electronic health records.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Severe infections, domain-specific cognitive vulnerability, and future infection risk in older adults.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Article
- MRI markers of cerebrospinal fluid dynamics predict dementia and mediate the impact of cardiovascular risk.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Assessing Risk Factors for Cognitive Decline Using Electronic Health Record Data: A Scoping Review.Research square · 2024Article
- Infection, delirium, and risk of dementia in patients with and without white matter disease on previous brain imaging: a population-based study.The lancet. Healthy longevity · 2024Article
- Infection, Inflammation, and Poststroke Cognitive Impairment.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Article
- Prior infections are associated with smaller hippocampal volume in older women.Frontiers in dementia · 2024Article
- Hospital-treated prevalent infections, the plasma proteome and incident dementia among UK older adults.iScience · 2023Article
- Genome mining yields putative disease-associated ROMK variants with distinct defects.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- Cardiovascular health, infection burden, and incident dementia in the UK Biobank.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
While there is growing evidence of associations between infections and dementia risk, associations with cognitive impairment and potential structural correlates of cognitive decline remain underexplored. Here we aimed to investigate the presence and nature of any associations between common infections, cognitive decline and neuroimaging parameters. The UK Biobank is a large volunteer cohort (over 500,000 participants recruited aged 40-69) with linkage to primary and secondary care records. Using linear mixed effects models, we compared participants with and without a history of infections for changes in cognitive function during follow-up. Linear regression models were used to investigate the association of infections with hippocampal and white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume. 16,728 participants (median age 56.0 years [IQR 50.0-61.0]; 51.3% women) had baseline and follow-up cognitive measures. We found no evidence of an association between the presence of infection diagnoses and cognitive decline for mean correct response time (slope difference [infections versus no infections] = 0.40 ms, 95% CI: -0.17-0.96 per year), visual memory (slope difference 0.0004 log errors per year, 95% CI: -0.003-0.004, fluid intelligence (slope difference 0.007, 95% CI: -0.010-0.023) and prospective memory (OR 0.88, 95% CI: 0.68-1.14). No evidence of an association was found between infection site, setting or frequency and cognitive decline except for small associations on the visual memory test. We found no association between infections and hippocampal or WMH volume. Limitations of our study include selection bias, potential practice effects and the relatively young age of our cohort. Our findings do not support a major role for common midlife infections in contributing to cognitive decline for this cohort. Further research is warranted in individuals with more severe infections, for infections occurring later in life.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.