IMPORTANCETo our knowledge, no effective treatments exist for Alzheimer disease, and new molecules are years away. However, several drugs prescribed for other conditions have been associated with reducing its risk.OBJECTIVE To analyze the association between statin exposure and Alzheimer disease incidence among Medicare beneficiaries. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSWe examined the medical and pharmacy claims of a 20% sample of Medicare beneficiaries from 2006 to 2013 and compared rates of Alzheimer disease diagnosis for 399 979 statin users 65 years of age or older with high or low exposure to statins and with drug molecules for black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white people, and men and women of Asian, Native American, or unkown race/ethnicity who are referred to as "other." MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The main outcome was incident diagnosis of Alzheimer disease based on the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, ClinicalModification. We used Cox proportional hazard models to analyze the association between statin exposure and Alzheimer disease diagnosis for different sexes, races and ethnicities, and statin molecules. RESULTSThe 399 979 study participants included 7794 (1.95%) black men, 24 484 (6.12%) black women, 11 200 (2.80%) Hispanic men, 21 458 (5.36%) Hispanic women, 115 059 (28.77%) white men, and 195 181 (48.80%) white women. High exposure to statins was associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer disease diagnosis for women (hazard ratio [HR], 0.85; 95% CI, 0.82-0.89; P<.001) and men (HR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.83-0.93; P<.001). Simvastatin was associated with lower Alzheimer disease risk for white women (HR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.81-0.92; P<.001), white men (HR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.82-0.99; P=.02), Hispanic women (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.68-0.99; P=.04), Hispanic men (HR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.50-0.91; P=.01), and black women (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.66-0.93; P=.005). Atorvastatin was associated with a reduced risk of incident Alzheimer disease diagnosis for white women (HR, 0.84, 95% CI, 0.78-0.89), black women (HR, 0.81, 95% CI, 0.67-0.98), and Hispanic men (HR, 0.61, 95% CI, 0.42-0.89) and women (HR, 0.76, 95% CI, 0.60-0.97). Pravastatin and rosuvastatin were associated with reduced Alzheimer disease risk for white women only (HR, 0.82, 95% CI, 0.70-0.95 and HR, 0.81, 95% CI, 0.67-0.98, respectively). High statin exposure was not associated with a statistically significant lower Alzheimer disease risk among black men. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEThe reduction in Alzheimer disease risk varied across statin molecules, sex, and race/ethnicity. Clinical trials that include racial and ethnic groups need to confirm these findings. Because statins may affect Alzheimer disease risk, physicians should consider which statin is prescribed to each patient.

Introduction There is insufficient understanding of diagnosis of etiologic dementia subtypes and contact with specialized dementia care among older Americans. Methods We quantified dementia diagnoses and subsequent health care over five years by etiologic subtype and physician specialty among Medicare beneficiaries with incident dementia diagnosis in 2008/09 (226,604 persons/714,015 person‐years). Results Eighty‐five percent of people were diagnosed by a nondementia specialist physician. Use of dementia specialists within one year (22%) and five years (36%) of diagnosis was low. “Unspecified” dementia diagnosis was common, higher among those diagnosed by nondementia specialists (33.2%) than dementia specialists (21.6%). Half of diagnoses were Alzheimer's disease. Discussion Ascertainment of etiologic dementia subtype may inform hereditary risk and facilitate financial and care planning. Use of dementia specialty care was low, particularly for Hispanics and Asians, and associated with more detection of etiological subtype. Dementia‐related professional development for nonspecialists is urgent given their central role in dementia diagnosis and care.

BackgroundAntihypertensive treatments have been shown to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has been implicated in AD, and thus RAS-acting AHTs (angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), and angiotensin-II receptor blockers (ARBs)) may offer differential and additional protective benefits against AD compared with other AHTs, in addition to hypertension management.MethodsIn a retrospective cohort design, we examined the medical and pharmacy claims of a 20% sample of Medicare beneficiaries from 2007 to 2013, and compared rates of AD diagnosis for 1,343,334 users of six different AHT drug treatments, 65 years of age or older (4,215,338 person-years). We compared AD risk between RAS and non-RAS AHT drug users, and between ACEI users and ARB users, by sex and race/ethnicity. Models adjusted for age, socioeconomic status, underlying health, and comorbidities.FindingsRAS-acting AHTs were slightly more protective against onset of AD than non-RAS-acting AHTs for males, (male OR = 0.931 (CI: 0.895–0.969)), but not so for females (female OR = 0.985 (CI: 0.963–1.007)). Relative to other AHTs, ARBs were superior to ACEIs for both men (male ARB OR = 0.834 (CI: 0.788–0.884); male ACEI OR = 0.978 (CI: 0.939–1.019)) and women (female ARB OR = 0.941 (CI: 0.913–0.969); female ACEI OR = 1.022 (CI: 0.997–1.048)), but only in white men and white and black women. No association was shown for Hispanic men and women.ConclusionHypertension management treatments that include RAS-acting ARBs may, in addition to lowering blood pressure, reduce AD risk, particularly for white and black women and white men. Additional studies and clinical trials that include men and women from different racial and ethnic groups are needed to confirm these findings. Understanding the potentially beneficial effects of certain RAS-acting AHTs in high-risk populations is of great importance.

BackgroundHyperlipidemia and hypertension are modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). Approximately 25% of adults over age 65 use both antihypertensives (AHTs) and statins for these conditions. While a growing body of evidence found statins and AHTs are independently associated with lower ADRD risk, no evidence exists on simultaneous use for different drug class combinations and ADRD risk. Our primary objective was to compare ADRD risk associated with concurrent use of different combinations of statins and antihypertensives. MethodsIn a retrospective cohort study (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014), we analyzed 694,672 Medicare beneficiaries in the United States (2,017,786 person-years) who concurrently used both statins and AHTs. Using logistic regression adjusting for age, socioeconomic status and comorbidities, we quantified incident ADRD diagnosis associated with concurrent use of different statin molecules (atorvastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin) and AHT drug classes (two renin-angiotensin system (RAS)-acting AHTs, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin-II receptor blockers (ARBs), vs non-RAS-acting AHTs).

This is the first study to our knowledge to estimate the effect of country-specific health expenditures on life expectancies of men and women. Future work understanding the determinants of these differences has the potential to improve the overall efficiency and equity of national health systems.