ArticleAlzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association2026
Exposure to lead and incidence of Alzheimer's disease and all-cause dementia in the United States.
Article in Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Perinatal lead (Pb) exposure and alterations to amyloid beta and metabolic profiles in the brain.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Cell composition, transcriptomic, and functional pathway changes in the hippocampus in Alzheimer's disease and overlap with lead (Pb) exposure signatures.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Genetic Polymorphisms as Modifiers of Health Risks from Exposure to Toxic Elements: A Traditional Literature Review.Toxics · 2026Review
- Exposure to lead and incidence of Alzheimer's disease and all-cause dementia in the United States.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
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Abstract
introductionGrowing evidence suggests lead exposure may increase dementia risk, but evidence from human studies is limited. We investigated prospective associations between lead exposure and incident Alzheimer's disease (AD) and all-cause dementia in nationally-representative US populations.
methodsBaseline measured blood lead and estimated patella and tibia lead from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)-III (1988-1994, blood n = 6,217, bone n = 5,865) and continuous NHANES (1999-2016, blood n = 8,038, bone n = 4,824) were linked to Medicare and the National Death Index for incident AD and all-cause dementia, with up to 30 years of follow-up. Survey-weighted Cox regressions estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
resultsIn continuous NHANES, estimated patella lead was associated with AD (HR = 2.96, 95% CI:1.37-6.39) and all-cause dementia (HR = 2.15, 95% CI:1.33-3.46), comparing quartile-4 vs. quartile-1. We observed weaker associations in NHANES-III. Blood lead showed no association. DISCUSSION: These findings suggest cumulative lead as a potential dementia risk factor. HIGHLIGHTS: We examined Medicare-linked National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) on lead exposure and incident Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia. Lead exposure was assessed by blood lead and algorithm-estimated bone lead levels. High estimated patella lead was linked to increased all-cause dementia incidence. Dementia cases drop by 18% if all patella lead levels reduce to the 25
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