Dementia affects over 57 million people worldwide, with numbers projected to triple in the next 25 years. A new study suggests that vaccination against shingles could reduce the risk of dementia by 20%. The study, led by scientists from Stanford Medicine, used a health policy in Wales that introduced the shingles vaccine in 2013 to track its effects on dementia cases.
Researchers compared the health outcomes of people who received the shingles vaccine with those who did not. They found that vaccinated individuals had a 37.2% lower relative risk of getting shingles and were 3.5% less likely to receive a dementia diagnosis. However, the effect on dementia risk differed between sexes, with women showing a greater reduction in new diagnoses.
The study’s findings are promising, but more research is needed to confirm the link between shingles vaccination and lower dementia risk. Some experts caution that the study’s results may be due to other factors, such as the lower incidence of shingles in the population. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that the vaccine is not associated with severe adverse events and is over 90% effective in preventing shingles.
If further research verifies the findings, the shingles vaccine could be a cost-effective way to prevent or delay dementia. However, more studies are needed to establish a definitive causal relationship between shingles vaccination and lower dementia risk.
Source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/shingles-vaccine-could-prevent-1-in-5-dementia-cases