Association of dementia in patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo

ObjectiveWe conducted a cohort study to investigate whether benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is correlated with an increased risk of dementia. MethodsWe established a case cohort comprising 7818 patients aged over 20 years who were diagnosed with BPPV from 2000 to 2010. In addition, we formed a control cohort by randomly selecting 31,272 people without BPPV and matched them with the BPPV patients according to gender, age, and index year. Cox proportional hazard regressions were performed to compute the hazard ratio (HR) of dementia after we adjusted for demographic characteristics and comorbidity. ResultsThe prevalence of comorbidity was higher among patients with BPPV than among those without BPPV. In addition, patients with BPPV exhibited a 1.24-fold (95% confidence interval, CI 1.09-1.40; P < 0.001) higher risk of dementia than those without BPPV after we adjusted for age, gender, and comorbidity. An analysis stratified according to demographic factors revealed that women with BPPV exhibited a 1.36-fold (95% CI 1.16-1.59; P < 0.001) higher risk of dementia. Patients with BPPV aged over 65 years exhibited a significantly higher risk of dementia (adjusted HR: 1.26; 95% CI 1.10-1.43; P < 0.001) than those without BPPV. ConclusionsPatients with BPPV exhibited a higher risk of dementia than those without BPPV.