Meta-Analysis of Herpes Simplex Virus 2 and Dementia Risk

C. J. Hunt's 2026 meta-analysis synthesizes evidence from 7 independent studies with a total sample size of 751,156 participants. It reports pooled odds and hazard ratios for the association between HSV-2 infection and Alzheimer's disease or all-cause dementia. The findings indicate no clear association with Alzheimer's and mixed evidence for all-cause dementia.

Use Cases

• Analyze pooled odds ratios for Alzheimer's disease from studies reporting HSV-2 exposure.
• Compare DerSimonian and Laird pooled hazard ratios to Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman results for all-cause dementia.
• Examine the 95% confidence intervals across the seven included studies to assess statistical significance.
• Investigate the potential risk increase suggested by hazard ratios near 1.37 for all-cause dementia.

Strengths

• Aggregates data from 751,156 total participants across seven studies.
• Reports specific statistical results, including pooled odds ratios near 1.1 and hazard ratios up to 1.37 with confidence intervals.
• Systematically reviewed 626 primary studies to identify relevant evidence.

Limitations

• Limited to 7 independent studies, which may constrain statistical power and generalizability.
• Evidence is mixed, with one meta-analytic method showing a potential relationship and another not, indicating uncertainty.
• The underlying data is not provided in tabular form; the dataset is a 670.1 KB DOCX document summarizing the analysis.

Provenance

Source

C. J. Hunt via figshare.

Collection Method

Systematic review and meta-analysis of published peer-reviewed studies.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated March 2026.

Geography

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