Finnish Dementia Risk Factors and Comorbidities Analysis

375,327 individuals, including 62,555 dementia cases and 312,772 matched controls, are analyzed from nationwide Finnish health registries. The study identifies 29 hospital-treated diseases, including 2 infectious diseases and 27 mental and physical comorbidities, associated with dementia risk. Research by Pyry N. Sipilä examines the independent role of severe infections in dementia incidence, adjusting for confounders.

Use Cases

• Analyze the association between 29 identified diseases (e.g., cystitis, bacterial infection of an unspecified site) and dementia risk using adjusted rate ratios and confidence intervals.
• Investigate the role of 27 comorbid dementia-related diseases as potential confounders in the relationship between severe infections and dementia.
• Compare dementia risk associations across subgroups defined by sex and education using the matched cohort of cases and controls.
• Examine the temporal relationship of disease diagnoses, applying a 1-year lag period before dementia diagnosis or index date.

Strengths

• Large-scale analysis of 375,327 individuals from nationwide Finnish health registries.
• Identifies 29 specific diseases robustly associated with dementia risk, with prevalence ≥1% and confounder-adjusted rate ratio ≥1.20.
• Study design includes 312,772 dementia-free controls matched for year of birth, sex, and follow-up period.

Limitations

• Analysis is limited to diagnoses captured in nationwide registries, unable to directly assess psychosocial, behavioral, or unrecorded biological confounders.
• The dataset scope is limited to supplementary tables and figures from a single study, not the underlying raw patient-level registry data.
• Findings are specific to the Finnish population aged 65 or older, which may limit generalizability to other demographics or healthcare systems.

Provenance

Source

Nationwide Finnish health registry data.

Collection Method

Register-based study of individuals diagnosed with late-onset dementia between 2017 and 2020 and matched controls.

Time Range

Disease occurrences identified 1–21 years before dementia diagnosis/index date; dementia diagnoses tracked from 2017 to 2020.

Freshness

Last updated in March 2026.

Geography

Finland.