Inflammatory bowel disease and dementia: Evidence triangulation from a meta-analysis of observational studies and Mendelian randomization study
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Biomedical and Environmental Sciences
Volume
38
Issue
1
First Page
56
Last Page
66
PubMed ID
39924155
Publisher
Elsevier
School
Centre for Precision Health
RAS ID
78480
Abstract
Objective: Observational studies have found associations between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's dementia (AD) and vascular dementia (VD); however, these findings are inconsistent. It remains unclear whether these associations are causal. Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis by systematically searching for observational studies on the association between IBD and dementia. Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis based on summary genome-wide association studies (GWASs) was performed. Genetic correlation and Bayesian co-localization analyses were used to provide robust genetic evidence. Results: Ten observational studies involving 80,565,688 participants were included in this meta-analysis. IBD was significantly associated with dementia (risk ratio [ RR] =1.36, 95% CI = 1.04-1.78; I2 = 84.8%) and VD ( RR = 2.60, 95% CI = 1.18-5.70; only one study), but not with AD ( RR = 2.00, 95% CI = 0.96-4.13; I2 = 99.8%). MR analyses did not supported significant causal associations of IBD with dementia (dementia: odds ratio [ OR] = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.98-1.03; AD: OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.95-1.01; VD: OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.97-1.07). In addition, genetic correlation and co-localization analyses did not reveal any genetic associations between IBD and dementia. Conclusion: Our study did not provide genetic evidence for a causal association between IBD and dementia risk. The increased risk of dementia observed in observational studies may be attributed to unobserved confounding factors or detection bias.
DOI
10.3967/bes2024.149
Access Rights
free_to_read
Comments
Liu, D., Cao, M., Wu, S., Li, B., Jiang, Y., Lin, T., ... & Tang, J. (2025). Inflammatory bowel disease and dementia: Evidence triangulation from a meta-analysis of observational studies and Mendelian randomization study. Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, 38(1), 56-66. https://doi.org/10.3967/bes2024.149