Are hospitalizations with infection associated with dementia incidence?

Systemic infections are thought to be one of many potential risk factors for dementia. In this long-term cohort study (n=15,668), the authors compared dementia incidence among individuals who had been hospitalized for infection and those who had not.
Hospitalization for infection was associated with a 1.7 times greater incidence of dementia, even when adjusted for other risk factors such as age and APOE-ε genotype (P<0.001).
Risk of dementia was dependent on type of infection with respiratory, urinary tract, skin, blood, and circulatory system infections associated with the highest incidence.