The researchers then divided that population into two groups: a group consisting of people who had contracted Covid during that period and another group with people who had not been diagnosed with Covid. More than 400,000 people ended up in the covid group, 5.8 million people in the uninfected group.
“If this increase in new Alzheimer’s diagnoses continues, the surge in patients with the disease for which there is currently no cure will be significant and could put further strain on our long-term care resources,” Davis said.
“Alzheimer’s disease is a serious and challenging disease and we thought we could have turned the tide somewhat by reducing common risk factors such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. Now so many people in the US have had covid and the long-term consequences of that disease continue to emerge. It is important to continue monitoring the impact of this disease on future disability.”
Case Western Reserve’s Professor Rong Xu, the study’s corresponding author, said the team plans to continue studying the effects of COVID-19 on Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, more specifically investigating which subpopulations would be more vulnerable. and examine whether existing, approved drugs could be used for a new purpose, namely to treat the long-term effects of Covid.
The team’s study is published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. This article is based on a press release from Case Western Reserve University.