Evidence Hub

Hypoglycaemia and the risk of dementia: a population-based cohort study using exposure density sampling

Wajd Alkabbani, C. Maxwell, R. Marrie, S. Tyas, Iliana C. Lega, J. Gamble

International Journal of Epidemiology, 2022

13 participants · 8 citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown hypoglycaemia to be associated with an increased risk of dementia; however, there are several design challenges to consider. The objective of this study is to assess the association between hypoglycaemia and dementia while addressing these challenges using a lag period, exposure density sampling (EDS) and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW).

METHODS

This was a population-based cohort using data (1996-2018) from British Columbia, Canada. From a cohort of incident type 2 diabetes patients aged 40-70 years, we created a dynamic sub-cohort of hypoglycaemia-exposed (≥1 episode requiring hospitalization or a physician visit) and unexposed individuals using EDS, in which four unexposed individuals per one exposed were randomly selected into risk sets based on diabetes duration and age. Follow-up was until dementia diagnosis, death, emigration or 31 December 2018. Those diagnosed with dementia within 2 years of follow-up were censored. We adjusted for confounding using IPTW and estimated the hazard ratio (HR, 95% CI) of dementia using weighted conditional cause-specific hazards risk models with death as a competing risk.

RESULTS

Among 13 970 patients with incident type 2 diabetes, 2794 experienced hypoglycaemia. There were 329 dementia events over a median (interquartile range: IQR) follow-up of 5.03 (5.7) years. IPTW resulted in well-balanced groups with weighted incidence rates (95% CI) of 4.59 (3.52, 5.98)/1000 person-years…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study, done in people. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence. Reported size: 13 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free